
library of congress. 

Cliai)rP.25iCopyright JS'o 

united STATES OF AMER/CA. 




- BY - 

1 /^ 

Thomas A. Macdonald, 

V, 

AUTHOR OF 

*^THE MIGHTY CONFLICT OF THF AGFSy 


“They little know the human heart, 

Who think true love with time expires. 
Once kindled, it will ne’er depart, 

But hum through life with all its fires.” 


' 'They sacrificed all jf or love and LOVE immortalized 

the gif i and the giver. 


Paterson, New Jersey, 

U. S. A. 

1901. 


PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 


Library of Congreae 

Iwu Copies Received 

FEB 21 1901 

^ Copyright 01^ 

SECOND COPY 

I 




'>3 








K 


Copyright, 1901, 

by 

Thomas A. Macdonald. 


All rights reserved. 



Press Printingr s«<i Publishing Co., 
2G9 Main Street, 

Paterson, N. J. 




I^^HO would sacrifice a cherished object for the good 
of others; 

Who would measure out that happiness to all their 
fellows which they themselves possess; 

Whose love would wipe away all tears from all faces, 
and soothe every weary heart; 

Whose consuming desire is to sacrifice this life that 
they might win the Divine Life. 




INTRODUCTION. 


S his book is written for the many burdened hearts in the worlds 
with a hidden life known only to themselves, w'ho if they knew 
of the Divine love and the marriage to their Lord and King,, 
which may be theirs also, would take heart and also strive for the 
same goal. Let the ones who grieve for the glad greeting and the 
warm embrace of an absent one, whether on earth or in heaven, take 
courage; lor a union of hearts and purposes is near at hand for all 
who mourn. Let no one fret or repine because he feels that others- 
have had more blessings in their lives than he has had, but let him 
in patience possess his soul — waiting and watching. 

The Creator of all lives is too loving to forget you, too wise to err,, 
too good to be unkind to those who live in harmony with His will. 

If darkness surrounds you, resulting from past teachings, then 
seek light from the Book of Truth, for there, there is light; there 
will be found that which will bring joy and happiness for those who- 
earnestly seek for these things, and there is a sweet reward to all 
overcomers. 

There are some things told over again in these volumes from an- 
other work published by the author. The story of Calvary and the 
crown has been told over and over for nineteen centuries; then sure- 
ly heretofore unknown truths that concern men and women in their 
life here and hereafter, will bear telling twice, especially when they 
are written in a new form. It is the prayer of the author that there 
will come a blessing, which will bear fruit for Eternity, to every 
reader of this work: “ Two Lovers and Two Loves.” 

In these volumes the author has attempted to fit the individual 
life into the events of future history; to blend Bible story with 
the life of the individual; to show men and women living in the. 
midst of the years that will be in the immediate future. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, where the Man of Sorrows had 
his deepest agonies, it was not woman that slept during that 
time of anguish; it was not woman that denied her Lord at the 
Palace of Caiaphas; it was not woman that deserted His cross at the- 
Hill of Calvary; but it was woman who had the courage to testify 
her love and respect for his corpse and procured spices for embalm- 
ing it. It was woman that was last at night and first in the morning, 
at His sepulchre. So it is she that is most faithful to frequent the 
House of Prayer, who helps the most to bear the crosses of the bur- 
dened ones of earth in this the close of the Gospel age. 

The author has attempted to delineate in this work faithful- 
ness of man and woman to every instinct of their natures, to all 
that which is good and true, and also to outline God’s plan for their- 
reward. The called of God are made to hear in part the sufferings, 
of Christ that He may give them the greater reward. 

Sincerely yours. 

The Author. 

Paterson, New Jersey, Feb., 1901. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK I. 


Chap. 

I. 

A Home that Belonged to Another, 

. 

. 

Pag:e. 

I 

II. 

Promises Fulfilled, 

- 

- 

18 

III. 

Greatest Joy, and Greatest Pain, - 

- 

- 

4 S 

IV. 

Words of Comfort, 

- 

- 

61 

V. 

Knocking at a Barred Door, 

- 


79 

■ VI. 

Searching for Truth, 

- 


89 

, VII. 

Verna Teaches of God’s Faithfulness, 

- 


103 

VIII. 

Harvey Meets with a Painful Accident, 

- 


120 

IX. 

A Recompense, 

- 


132 

X. 

A Covenant Kept, - 

- 


153 

XL 

A Promised Land Gained, 

• 


175 

XII. 

A Brand Plucked from the Burning, 

- 


183 

XIII. 

The Standard Bearers of the New Covenant, 


202 

XIV. 

A Wonderful Birthright Blessing, - 

- 


220 

XV. 

Hidden Treasures Found, - 

- 


232 

XVI. 

Identified, . - . . 

- 


252 

XVII. 

A Lost Soul, 

- 


274 

XVIII. 

Homes for the Masses, 

- 


291 

XIX. 

Watchmen on Zion’s Towers, 

- 


298 

I. 

BOOK 11 . 

Glimpses of Heaven, 



319 

II. 

The Jews Gather in Palestine. A Stirring Appeal, 

328 

III. 

Perplexity; Hated of All Men. Babylon the Great, 336-350 

IV. 

Glad News Proclaimed, 

- 

- 

362 

V. 

The Mighty Host of Gog and Magog, 

- 

- 

372 

VI. 

Verna is Imprisoned and Rescued by Harvey, 

- 

391 

VII. 

All Nations Gathered Before Jerusalem. 

PerpI 

ex- 



ity of the Nations, 

- 

- 

412 

VIII. 

Behold the Bridegroom Cometh. All Things Restored, 

437 


BOOK I. 



CHAPTER 1. 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 

‘‘My dear son, you know that your father and I are 
getting old, and quite unable to work as we used to do ; 
that our home is heavily mortgaged, and at any time we 
may be turned out, homeless, on the cold charity of the 
world. You are our only hope, and if you would consent 
to remain with us, and try to redeem the home, I believe 
you could do it. I believe God would bless your efforts 
in trying to keep this home for your parents.” 

“ I do not like farming, mother. My whole soul rebels 
against work on the farm. I love to work with carpen- 
ter’s or mechanic’s tools. The hours go swiftly by when 
building or making anything. I find a constant joy in 
using any machine that is driven by power and made to 
do quick and good work, other than by my own strength 
and toil. There is so much work on a farm that has to be 
done by hard toil that cannot be accomplished in any other 
way, that my whole nature recoils from it.” 

“ But, Harvey, you know how hard your father and I 
have worked for our children, and would you see us 
turned out of this home, without a place to lay our heads. ^ 
The sickness of your two brothers has tended so much to 
bring about our helpless state. Oh, Harvey, I know that 
your heart is not in the work, and that the outlook is dark, 
but if you would think of our sad future, and put your 
whole energy into the redeeming of the farm, you could 
soon pay off the debt, and then the farm would be yours. 


2 


2 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 


Have you not a duty to perform to your parents, to the 
world, and to your God.? Now that you know that you 
are our only hope, how can you hesitate to do what we 
ask.?” 

“ Dear mother, can I not provide a home for you in 
some other way.? I do not propose to leave you, but why 
should I adopt a calling that will not, cannot bring me 
happiness? I feel that I could be successful in something 
that would be more congenial to me.” 

“ Then we would have to leave our home and friends, 
and I feel as if that would kill me. I know that there is 
nothing that your father so much dreads as to be turned 
out of his old home. You see, it proves that his manage- 
ment and his capacity to provide a home for his family 
have been unavailing, and this bears heavily on any man 
who has a right sense of pride and manhood about him. 
My son, do not ask us to leave our old home until you 
have tried your best to save it for us and yourself. We 
feel that we could never have another day’s enjoyment if 
we had to seek a home elsewhere. The very thought 
makes me feel as if my heart would break.” 

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she placed one 
arm around her son’s neck and, resting her head on his 
breast, wept bitterly. 

This was too much for Harvey. He folded his arms 
about his mother and gave her the sacred promise that he 
would stay. “ Cheer up,” mother, he said ; “ I promise 
you that I will stay with you six years, and do all that is in 
my power to save the old home for you and father. But 
if I cannot pay off every dollar of debt in that time, I will 
not spend another day on the farm.” 

“ You will have it all paid before that time, my son. 
God will help you if you will only do what is right.” 

This conversation was one of many that had taken place 
between mother and son within the past six months, with 
the result as stated above. 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 3 

Having at last given the promise that his parents had so 
earnestly sought, he determined to do all that could be 
done to accomplish the task he had set before him. He 
said to himself: “If any other man could do it, I can. 
The greater the difficulties the more I will stiive, and, 
with God’s help, I will do it even though it does seem 
hopeless at present.” 

He did not know that in many cases in the past, where 
all the world said that a certain purpose was hopeless, and 
could not be carried out, that the desperate resolves of 
many men who had risen above every difficulty, made 
the attempt, and successfully carried out that which would 
have been impossible to any and all others. 

A great burden, for the time being, was lifted from the 
hearts of Harvey’s parents. The star of hope once more 
appeared in their sky, as in fancy they could see in the 
future the efforts of their son successful, the debts all paid, 
and the few remaining years of their life spent at the dear 
old place. 

***** 

In a cottage at the base of a mountain, on the shores of 
the Northumberland Straits, Harvey M. Douglass, the 
subject of this story, was born of Scotch parents. The 
sides of this mountain are covered with trees of all shades 
and colors. In the valley below and on the rising slopes 
beyond, are farms regularly laid out. On these farms are 
many orchards. Here, as in all highlands, are gorges in 
the mountains, where streams of water give forth their 
low but eternal song of praise to the One who started 
them on their course. To the north is a beautiful inland 
harbor, into which three rivers empty, and when united, 
pass out into the straits which can be seen in the distance. 

On the shore of this harbor is one good sized town and 
several small villages, glistening in the sunlight. Farther 
toward the rising sun are several towns where many men 


4 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 


are employed mining coal, which is shipped in steamers 
and vessels and carried by rail to many places. But from 
all this grand and distant view as seen from the summits of 
these hills, one turns to the hamlets which lie hundreds of 
feet directly beneath. No fancy can picture anything 
more peaceful, more beautiful, than these cottages and 
farms. The air is soft and balmy. The stillness of sum- 
mer is all around, and the gaze rests upon the scene as if 
in dreamland. There is a seclusion from the din of the 
outside world that awakens thoughts of peace and eternal 
rest. Here nature seems to sleep, clothed in beauty. The 
changes man has made but add to the beauty and the rest- 
fulness of that quiet corner of the earth. Many times 
Harvey, in his boyhood days, had climbed this mountain 
and looked upon these scenes, which he had learned to 
love with the love of the Scotch race for home and native 
land. 

It would be natural for one to suppose that this grandeur 
and peace in nature’s scenes would fill the soul of Harvey 
with desires for a quiet life, and such, indeed, might have 
been the case if all the circumstances of his life had been 
of a corresponding character. Many things, however, 
caused the fires of his nature to burn fiercely within his 
bosom, over which, for the most part, he had no control. 

Scenes of childhood leave an imperishable memory on 
every one. Childhood passed in a city, of necessity must 
lead to a life that will find its joys in the city. Naturally, 
such a one will reach out to the highest form of city life, 
whether obtained or not. The beauty and grandeur of 
nature in the various parts of the world may be viewed 
with intense interest by a child of the city; but for home 
and home rest they return to the city life and the associa- 
tions of childhood’s days. If a child is born and raised on 
a flat, low country, it has an effect upon all its after life. 
There will, in most cases, be a plodding dullness belong- 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 5 

ing to a life thus begun, that will be in accord with the 
surroundings of nature. 

The teachings .of nature’s landscape to men and women, 
absorbed in their childhood, are most marked where 
mountains and deep valleys have been planted in 
profusion by nature’s God. A child who often climbs 
high mountains, and views from their peaks the hills and 
valleys in the far distance, has a wider vision and a broader 
understanding of all that pertains to this great world and 
God’s universe than he would have if his surroundings 
had been of a different type. 

Generations of people thus brought up, as has been the 
case with the Scotch, have given to modern times a race 
of men of wide views, untiring energy, and indomitable 
perseverance. All this has been brought about by the 
power of nature’s teachings upon the mind and life of this 
people. 

In the Land of the Mayflower there are to be seen some 
beautiful views, although of less grandeur than those in 
Old Scotia ; yet once seen, they can never be forgotten. 

The question may well be asked, “ Are men and 
women who have been raised in rural districts filled with 
the same desires, the same unrest of the human soul, as 
those who have been brought up in the great cities.? Are 
their hearts burdened with the mighty sorrows of their 
city kin ? We shall see. 

The father of Harvey hewed out a farm for himself from 
the primeval forest, and thereon built for himself a home, 
and in time took to be his helpmeet a bonnie Scotch 
lassie. A happy home w^as thus founded, where mutual 
love reigned. 

In the years which followed, a merry group of children 
grew up among the orchards and green hills and still 
greener valleys of that lovely spot; but into that home at 
last came sickness, the grim enemy of all homes. With 


6 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 


sickness came extra expenses, and eventually the curse of 
the farmer, debt, settled down upon the little household. 
This farmer and his wife were called upon to experience 
the same old breaking up of their home, as so many of 
the families of earth have had to endure, and the older sons 
and daughters went out into the wide world to seek a liv- 
ing for themselves. 

Harvey, when only sixteen, went to a place sixty miles 
from home and stayed with a doctor for a year, and while 
there won many words of praise for his willingness to do 
all he could for his employer. His associations with his 
new acquaintances were very pleasant, and he ever after- 
wards remembered them with joy. 

After his return, his father and mother pleaded with him 
to remain with them and try to save the old home. The 
case seemed so hopeless, that it was only when his mother 
besought him with tears to stay, that he consented. And 
thus at the early age of seventeen a man’s duties — the 
cares of others and his own — were thrust upon him. The 
joys of freedom that should come to every one in early life 
were snapped asunder and were, not even in the possibili- 
ties of the future for him. 

To save the old place, the home of his parents, and pro- 
vide for a sick sister, now became the duty of this boy. A 
team of horses had to be bought, stock and implements 
must be procured ; but how.? Besides the lack of these, 
the fertility of the soil was practically exhausted. “ Then 
how am I to make a start.?” reasoned Harvey. 

Gold had just been discovered along the southern coast 
ot this land of the Mayflower, and this presented the only 
means through which the farm could be replenished with 
implements and stock. Harvey fully realized the heavy 
task which lay before him. 

One hundred dollars had to be borrowed to pay accrued 
interest on the mortgage that hung like a funeral pall over 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 7 

everything. In the spring, after as much seed as the ex- 
isting circumstances would permit had been planted, Har- 
vey started for the gold mines. 

His mother was very loath to let her son go away from 
home, especially to the gold mines, but she bade him 
goodby, with “God bless you, my son; may He bring 
you safely back to your father and mother !” 

When Harvey arrived at the mines he obtained employ- 
ment at once with a company who were sinking a shaft in 
a mine. Thus at this early age he found himself pitted 
against strong, stalwart men who for years had had their 
muscles hardened in drilling and mining in rock. Al- 
though three rows of large blisters, which at last became 
raw flesh, soon covered both hands as he wielded the 
drill hammer and used the pick, he never wavered or com- 
plained, or lost any time. 

The muscles of his right arm became swelled to many 
times their former size, with great knots on- them; but 
after a few weeks these troubles were, all over. Still the 
work was extremely hard for such a mere boy. Such was 
his energy and his power of endurance, that he worked 
every day and made considerable “ over time.” 

When the time came for the hay on the old farm to be 
harvested, he made preparations to return home for that 
purpose. The need of money to accomplish that which 
he had started out to do was so great that, on the evening 
when he was to start for home, after working all day, 
when a brother miner requested him to take his place for 
another “ half shift,” he consented. At midnight he and 
a comrade, with their packs on their backs, started to 
walk to the next town, which was twelve miles distant, 
where they would get a coach at four in the morning that 
would take them to their homes. 

On his arrival home Harvey received a warm welcome 
from his parents, and was glad to get back once more, for 


8 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 


now his interest deepened in all that took place about the 
old place. 

The haying season was early that summer, and when 
Harvey got home he found that most of the farmers had 
their hay all in. Seeing this, with characteristic push he 
hired four men to help him, and felt no small pride in be- 
ing able to take the lead, and keep it, in cutting hay, with 
the four men following him. This was before mowing 
machines were made, and hay had to be cut with the 
scythe. 

This was the first haymaking in which he had had 
charge, and the lateness of it and the accompanying toil 
made such an impression on him that many times in after 
life he dreamed of harvesting his hay when all others had 
finished. Harvey’s parents began to take heart as they 
saw him enter into the work of redeeming the dear old 
farm that they at one time were so fearful of losing. 

Hay all in, Harvey at once set to work clearing up ten 
acres of “ stumpy land” for the plow, cutting drains and 
other improvements. The earth that he took out of the 
drains was carted away and dumped into swampy holes in 
the meadow or hay land of the farm, which only grew 
swamp grass, and little of that. All the fertilizers that 
could be gathered to give the quickest returns were placed 
upon the fields. 

A team of horses were bought in the fall, with the ob- 
ject of plowing every available acre for oats, the land be- 
ing too poor to grow wheat or barley. 

Finding he could not get all the land that he wanted 
plowed himself, he determined to ask his neighbors to 
help him, as plowing and other work is often accom- 
plished in that way in the land of the Mayflower as well 
as other parts of the world. This was done by asking the 
young men to come and give a day’s plowing or other 
work, and then to bring their sisters or sweethearts to a 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 9 

general gathering in the evening, where dancing and other 
innocent amusements were carried on for a few hours. 
His neighbors readily responded to his call, and with 
their help he got a large tract of land plowed for the com- 
ing spring crop. 

Through the winter months wood for new fences and 
firewood was taken from the forest in plenty. 

At this time a railroad was being surveyed across the 
province to the Straits ; this, when building operations 
began, would offer a good market for oats and hay, the 
sole products that the farm would raise. To raise hay and 
oats, then, and store it until the building of this railroad 
became the work of our young farmer. 

At the end of two years work on this railroad began, 
and the stored hay and oats proved a rich bank, for in the 
two years Harvey sold $r,ooo worth. The success thus 
achieved in the three years of the six that Harvey had set 
as the time he would try to pay off the farm debt, acted as 
an incentive to further efforts. Through these years farm 
implements were bought and young cattle were raised. 

Although large quantities of hay and oats were sold 
from the farm, yet every bit of fertilizer was put to the 
best advantage. Lime and other fertilizers were used, 
and now large quantities of good wheat were raised, and 
many fruit trees set out. 

When the six years of toil w'ere fully ended, Harvey 
found himself with only $50 of the old debt unpaid ; but 
as a set-off against that sum he had a good stock of horses, 
cattle and some sheep, besides farm implements of new 
and improved makes. So that although that small amount 
of debt yet remained, there was many times that sum rep- 
resented in the stock and implements. 

Untiring energy and great determination had thus ac- 
complished a task that had for a beginning as hopeless an 
outlook as ever confronted any young man. 


lO 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 


The success attained in that six years of unremitting 
toil resulted in Harvey becoming a farmer, even against 
his will, for nothing but love and fidelity to his parents 
would have induced him to adopt such a vocation for a 
living. Harvey had made a choice between “ two loves ” — 
that for his parents and the vocation of a mechanic — but 
his love for his parents was the greater. 

Having now reclaimed the home of his father, there was 
no small satisfaction in looking over the past and what 
had been accomplished, which was an incentive to further 
action, while brighter prospects lay in the future, even if 
it was on the farm. 

A few months after Harvey had succeeded in paying off 
the debt his father was taken with a sickness that carried 
him to the grave. All through this sickness Harvey 
nursed his father with tender care. The latter was a true 
Christian, a man beloved by all, and his end was peace. 
When he died it was said, and said with truth, that he had 
not an enemy in the world. 

Harvey went to school for a few months in the winter 
that he was sixteen, to gain such knowledge as he could 
to help him through life. Among his schoolmates was 
Maude MacMillan, a bright, joyous Scotch lass of about his 
own age, and a general favorite with all who knew her. She 
was good looking, and possessed of dark brown expressive 
eyes, which always spoke the thoughts of her^oul. Were 
she happy, they danced with glee. Were she in a medi- 
tative mood, they expressed more than could her words. 
Were she sad, what a depth of sorrow seemed to well up 
from her soul through those windows ! At all times they 
reflected her moods and the great wealth of her soul. 

“ There is the eye of darker hue, 

Which rivals midnight on her throne; 

Now softly bright, as streams that through 
The shady forests wander lone. 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 


I I 


Now like a cloud that hides from sight 
The beauty of the rolling spheres, 

And flashes far with angry light, 

Or sinking downward, melts to tears.” 

The friendship that was here begun continued later in 
the young folks’ temperance meetings, held in the village 
of Dundee. Maude had a sister Alice, some years older 
than herself, but not of the same vivacious nature. These 
sisters were constant companions, and when Harvey pur- 
posed having a drive he generally asked both of them to 
go with him. 

He had not analyzed his feelings as to which was his 
choice, but he knew that he was happy when in their 
company. They were always together, and both favored 
him. 

His soul was sleeping within him, but he was to expe- 
rience an awakening that in after years never permitted 
him to have rest or true happiness. 

It may reach beyond the regions of romance as told in 
story to state that both these sisters loved Harvey with all 
their hearts. The sisterly affection and constant compan- 
ionship between the two girls, and their love for Harvey, 
brought about a very unhappy condition of affairs for all 
three. The sweet fellowship of kindred souls mostly as- 
serted itself between Maude and Harvey at picnics and 
other gatherings, for they invariably wandered away 
alone. The hours spent thus together were periods of 
bliss never to be effaced from the memory of either. 

While at a picnic one afternoon in early summer they 
had thus strolled away. How beautiful all nature 
seemed to both, as they looked over the surrounding 
country from the top of the highest mountain near their 
home! It was the “old, old story” of the sweet singing 
of birds, the music of the wind in the trees. The forest, 
hills, valleys, clouds and sky had all taken on new colors, 


12 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 


it seemed to them. It was, indeed, love’s young dream in 
all its fullness. 

With all this new birth in the soul of Harvey a strange 
fatality seemed to follow him, for on this occasion, as on 
all others of the same sort, when they returned Alice was 
pouting. This made them all unhappy, although Maude 
and Harvey tried everything to restore harmony. 

This very trying to serve the happiness of others only 
made matters worse, for it resulted in Harvey at last, 
much against his will, asking Alice to go driving instead 
of Maude, although on several occasions Maude was asked 
to go along with them. 

Thus was happiness sacrificed and the misery prolonged 
for nearly two years. Each of the three was responsible 
for the way matters had shaped themselves, and yet there 
seemed no way out of it. But what a strange blight was 
upon the three lives ! The love of the sisters for each 
other, and each hoping against hope to gain the love of 
Harvey, was an evil that was thus, unconsciously to them, 
woven about them. Heart-burnings and unsatisfied long- 
ings were what their souls fed upon for many days. 

One day Harvey asked a friend to go to the home of the 
sisters, and as had happened so often before to please 
Alice, and to make it as pleasant as possible for all, he 
made himself agreeable to her while his friend sought the 
company of Maude. 

An unaccountable coldness oppressed every one all the 
evening, especially Maude, who seemed at once to lose all 
that life and vivacity which had always been one of her at- 
tractions. 

Some few days after this visit Harvey met her and, with 
a look of despair from her brown eyes that she could not 
hide, for they always spoke more than her lips, she said to 
Harvey: “ Did you ask Stuart Campbell to come to keep 
me company that evening?” 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. I 3 

“ Yes,” said Haivey. 

“Well, do not do so again.” The words came from 
her lips in such measured, determined tones, that Harvey 
was very much puzzled. 

“ Why ? ” he asked. 

“ I do not like him,” she said, “ and I will not see him 
if he comes again.” 

For some time after this Harvey saw very little of 
Maude, as she always left the room when he called. Thus 
he and Alice were left to themselves for some weeks. But 
when at last he did see Maude, there was a change in her 
that was very painful to him, although he utterly failed to 
see that he was the cause of it. 

In asking Stuart Campbell to go with him on that even- 
ing to keep Maude company, he had apparently expressed 
a preference for her sister, and there seemed nothing for 
Maude to do but to leave them to themselves and suffer on 
in silence. 

This separation was only for a time, however, as occa- 
sionally other guests were at the home of the sisters, and 
meetings at other places gave Harvey the opportunity to 
be with her. On these occasions the spirits of both Maude 
and Harvey were revived and cheered, only to -be cast 
down again. 

Although Maude for the most of the time kept away 
from Harvey when Alice was around, yet at other times 
she could not restrain herself. She could not but place a 
hand on Harvey’s shoulder or on his hand, or some slight 
caress that sent a thrill to the hearts of both. 

On two different occasions they found themselves 
locked in each other’s arms, and these moments in after 
life Harvey never forgot. 

Strange as it may seem, this went on for months, but 
the greatest sufferer was Maude. To her, love was life. 
If the object of her love could not be obtained, or his love 


1 4 A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 

lost to another, then in living there was no charm, no de- 
sire to battle with fate, which was to her darkness. The 
yearning of her impassioned soul, the glorious fulfilment 
of her aspirations had ended in bitter grief and keen dis- 
appointment. The throbbing pain of her heart was a 
constant reminder that her life was forever emptied of 
every earthly joy. 

A strange sadness settled over her day and night. She 
wearied of existence itself. She tried to busy herself in 
flowers and artistic work, but without effect. Constant 
anxiety and living without hope soon began to make deep 
inroads upon her health, and her once ruddy cheeks grew 
pale. 

This separated her more and more from the company of 
Harvey, who alone could give a new lease of life to her. 

In the fall Alice went to a school in a town nearby for 
a few months, and one evening in her absence Harvey vis- 
ited their home, and they had an opportunity for a long 
talk alone, such as they had not had for many months. At 
last they knew they loved each other. Locked in each 
other’s arms, many fond kisses were exchanged that, un- 
known to them both, were to be the last. 

“ Harvey,” said Maude, “this understanding has come 
too late to save my life. I am d>ing. My sufferings have 
brought me down to the grave. I feel that life for me is 
about ended, yet from this hour I shall And it harder to 
say : ‘ He doeth all things well but I shall have to say it, 
for the end for me is near. 

“ Before I die I have two requests to make, and I know 
that you will grant me both of them, because they are my 
dying wishes. I know not why, but there is an unseen 
power pressing me to make these requests. 

“Will you give your sacred promise to her who' loves 
you, and who is dying for the love she has for you, that 
you will grant me my wishes ? ” 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. I5 

“ Most surely I will. All there is of life for me goes 
out with you, if you leave me alone. But, Maude, you 
will now get better ; you will live, and I shall make 
amends for all my stupidity and want of thought.” 

“No, Harvey, I have only a short time to remain here, 
then all will be over. I do not blame you. It is but part 
of a strange destiny that we cannot escape and for which 
no one of us is to blame. You know that Alice also loves 
you, and my first request is that you will marry her inside 
of two years after your Maude closes her eyes to all that 
there might have been for her in this earthly life. Will 
you promise me.^” 

“ Yes, darling, I will,” said Harvey in a broken voice. 

“ Will you try to make her happy for my sake.^” 

“ At this hour all there is of life for me is to fulfil your 
wishes. I will do all I can to make her happy, and make 
her life what it should be.” 

“You will learn to forget me and love her, and then all 
will be well for you two,” said Maude, with just a little 
accent of despair in her voice. 

“Do you not judge me harshly.^ Would you forget 

mer^ 

To this question Maude made no answer, but shut her 
eyes; and a sigh, which was almost a groan, came from 
hej*. Then she said : 

“You have given me one promise, now I will tell you 
my second request. If Alice should die before you do, 
will you be true to the memory of the two sisters who have 
loved you so fondly, and not marry again. 

Poor Harvey ! Others were making a destiny for him 
from which he could not turn aside. 

There was no reason that he should not do as she asked, 
for he knew nothing of what lay in the future for him, and 
it was well for Maude’s peace of mind at this time that he 
did not know, for if he had known he would never have 
made the promise, but as it was he said : 


l6 A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. 

“Yes, Maude, I promise you that I will never marry 
again.” 

“ These two promises have taken thorns out of my pil- 
low as I shall lie upon my deathbed. I now know that in 
the Better Land we shall know each other and enjoy 
heaven together. But even with this better life in view, it 
is hard to give up life here while so young, when its tru- 
est joys are just budding forth.” 

Then Maude laid her head upon Harvey’s breast and 
burst into tears. 

Harvey tried to soothe her, telling her to hope for re- 
turning health and happiness. 

“No, no,” she said, “that cannot be, that must not be, 
for Alice would then be the sufferer. Harvey, I go and 
give place to her tliat she may be happy.” 

Thus they parted. Harvey said he would come again 
soon, but when he did come she had gone to the Better 
Land to watch and wait for his coming. 

Disease, the result of many painful hours of night vigils 
and melancholy thoughts, had set in and sapped the life 
from her once strong and healthy constitution. 

The knowledge and joy of being loved came too late to 
save her. So rapid was the progress of her deadly sick- 
ness, that she and Harvey never had another opportunity 
of telling each to the other of their continued love and 
affection. Death came so quickly that every one, even the 
physician, was surprised. 

“ Maude MacMillan died of consumption,” was written 
on the annals of the family record. But in heaven another 
story was told: “Maude MacMillan died of a broken 
heart.” 

Her end was peace, because she went to her God and 
Saviour. In her great trouble she had full assurance of 
His mercy and pardon, and she knew she was going to 
regions where there would be no more pain, sorrow or 
tears. With a hope of sweet reunion with Harvey when 


A HOME THAT BELONGED TO ANOTHER. I 7 

the Lord would say to him, also: “ It is enough.” She 
died happy. 

Poor Harvey ! Had he known of the long chapter in 
his after-life, of living alone and apart from Maude, he 
probably would have desired to go with her ; but it is well 
he did not know. 

What words can tell the sorrow that came into his soul 
as he reviewed the past, with its strange, unnatural story, 
and its awful result to the one he had learned to love more 
than all else on earth ! 

He asked himself many times: Have I killed my dar- 
ling with my stupidity ? Have I wrought only evil and 
death to the object of my love ? Is love a blessing or a 
curse The very thought was agony. “ How she must 
have suffered through my carelessness!” To think that 
that young and buoyant life gave way to despair and 
death, the death of a broken heart. With the deep love 
of a true woman she had loved Harvey, and when his love 
could not be gained she could not live. 

For a long time he could think only of his dear departed 
one, of her sweetness, and her trusting, confiding nature ; 
especially of her sad confession on the last evening they 
had spent together. Her pale face haunted him day 
and night. He could yet see those expressive eyes 
look at him with such deep affection, and yet with 
such a sad, tender emotion, that in losing her it 
seemed to him like paradise lost. And when he re- 
membered how he had lost her, it was pitiable to see the 
strong man bowed down so low. He looked into the 
dark future ; dark not only because of his utter loneliness, 
but for the remorse that would always follow him, 
whether life were long or short, and mused on the strength 
and depth of her love for him, that she could not live with- 
out him ; yet although lonely he remained strong and 
healthy. 


3 


CHAPTER IT 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 

Two months after Maude died he met Alice again, and 
a new sorrow was added to that he was already carrying. 
Alice’s pouting had grown into a real sorrow which was 
plainly written on her face, because of his continued ab- 
sence, In his grief for his lost loved one he thought not of 
the sister until he met her on this occasion. He asked him- 
self, “ Am I to be the cause of her death also.^ ” 

Many troubles had thus surrounded Harvey early in 
life, for which he wrongfully blamed himself, since the 
whole matter was a sad destiny which he had to fulfil. 

“What is to be done.?” was his next thought. “ Will 
Alice fade away and die as Maude did, if I do not console 
and eventually marry her as I had promised Maude.?” 
From the pallid cheek and listless life which he saw had 
come over her, he feared she would. He certainly had 
been more in her company than Maude’s, thus giving her 
more real cause for sorrow. He wondered if she sus- 
pected the real cause of his continued absence. 

Young as Harvey was, he asked himself : “ Would it be 
marriage with love on one side only.? Would it be right 
in this case.? His first and only love was dead, apparent- 
ly, by his own act, and could not be brought back. Here 
was her sister in the same pathway that might lead to the 
same goal ; and it was his leading, his personality that was 
working death to her as well as to the departed one. 
Could he outrage his own sacred thoughts respecting mar- 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


19 


riage and the memory of Maude? Was it possible to go 
through life with such a mighty burden upon him? Yet 
if he did not take it up and carry it, would it not add to 
his remorse', his wretchedness, for then the sacred prom- 
ise to Maude would be broken ? ” On the other hand, he 
thought it his duty to seek to make Alice happy, and so to 
make amends for the past. Day by day these sorrowful 
thoughts harassed him, but they were too sacred, too 
much interwoven with his innermost heart to tell to any- 
one, even his mother. 

But she, ever on the watch for her son’s happiness, soon 
saw that there was something weighing heavily on his 
mind. Not knowing what it was, and afraid he was be- 
coming discontented with the unremitting toil and re- 
straints of home, she said one day to him that she thought, 
if there was any one he cared for, he would be happier if 
he were married. 

“ There is no one I care for, mother,” he answered. 

“ That seems strange to me,” she said : “Is there no 
one among all your acquaintances that you love?” 

“ No one, mother.” 

“Well, if you were married you would be happier; 
and if your wife were a good 'woman she would help you 
in everything. You see, I am old and do not take the 
same interest in things that I used to before your father 
died; and then your sisters may leave home at any time. 
Then what will you do? Young men and women are al- 
ways safer when married young.” 

“ I do not see how I am to get married when there is no 
one that I love, and I do not see how I could be happy 
with one I do not love.” 

This conversation was often renewed between mother 
and son. So with the dark past still before him, the 
thought began to take shape, that perhaps by marrying 
Alice it would heal the past and make Alice happy, and 


20 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


his mother more contented. Mrs. Douglass, on her part, 
felt sure of a home if Harvey were once married and set- 
tled down in life. 

Harvey knew that Alice preferred him to many other 
young men, who would gladly have married her, and that 
fact flattered him in no small degree. 

At long intervals he made visits to Alice’s home ; these 
gradually became more frequent as months grew into 
years, and at last he asked her to marry him. She readily 
consented, although he had never told her that he loved 
her; she took that for granted. 

On the day of their marriage no joyful, happy feelings 
stirred the heart of poor Harvey ; instead, a total forget- 
fulness of self ensued, and all finer sentiments were for- 
ever shut up in his heart. All that could make a union of 
hearts on earth was buried in the dark past. 

“ It was in truth a holy thing, — 

Life cherished from the world apart; 

A dove that never tried its wing, 

But broods and nestles in the heart.” 

Harvey knew in part the dreadful misery of the step he 
was taking, but alas ! he had little idea of the true nature 
of the burden he had taken upon himself. He pacified his 
heartache with words like these : — 

“ Heart, be still in the darkness of thy woe, 

Bow thou silently and low; 

Come to thee whate’er God will, 

Be thou still, be thou still.” 

But there were times when his human heart would not 
be still. 

Only twenty-three, and his youth gone. More than 
that, youth had only come to him, it seemed, for a few 
hours. The parting with Maude, and the eternal silence 
between those two spirits, had killed joy and happiness 
for him. 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


2 


The novelty of marriage, receiving visitors and return- 
ing their calls, were gone through with a degree of pleas- 
ure by Harvey ; but to Alice, his wife according to the 
outward law, it was pride, pleasure and happiness. 

Harvey had not deceived himself. He was not happy, 
could not be, and many times in telling it all to his God he 
said : “ O Lord, if it be the price of my soul, I cannot 
love this woman as a man should love his wife. Yea, 
many deaths could not force me to do so. But, Lord, 
help me to be all things to her; help me to make her 
happy ; help me to be true to her ; help me to keep 
my promises to the one that Thou hast called home, and 
to be true to Thee and Thy cause. O, help me to see 
Thee in all Thy power, all Thy beauty, and transfer 
the love of my nature in all its fullness to Thyself.” 

Then he gave himself up to the martyrdom with which 
he was surrounded. 

If his early love had not been taken so soon and so 
rudely from him his nature might have been of a mild 
character; but his loss focussed and centralized his whole 
being into a fierceness that he was helpless to restrain. 
To stifle all such thoughts and force forgetfulness, he en- 
tered into the making of improvements to beautify his 
home in many ways, until he had one of the prettiest 
spots in the whole section. He also carried on the 
business of the farm that brought rich returns. 

He did not enter much into public life, but took a 
lively interest in the temperance cause, as he was taught 
in his early days in the temperance societies of which he 
was a member. When he did speak on temperance in 
any public gathering, it was with an intensity of feeling, 
made so from the pent-up nature of the life he lived 
every day, that won all hearts. 

As the result of a short address, accompanied by a 
soul-stirring temperance song, at a Grand Lodge meet- 


22 


PROMISES FUEFIELED. 


ing, he was elected Grand Secretary of the leading tem- 
perance order of the Land of the Mayflower at that time. 
Once a year delegates from the Grand Lodges met to- 
gether in some central place in Canada, which constituted 
the Supreme Lodge. 

Harvey held the position of Grand Secretary for three 
years, and each year he was sent as delegate to the 
Supreme Lodge. For eight years previous to his going 
to the Supreme Lodge there had been a serious quarrel 
between the members of the Supreme Lodge and a certain 
county lodge. Every year it was brought up in Supreme 
Lodge, but harmony and peace came not. With much 
bitterness each side set forth its grievances at this, the first 
meeting which Harvey had attended. Hot words were 
exchanged, plainly showing that if the speakers were tem- 
perate as to intoxicating drinks, they were not temperate 
in their language to each other. No settlement had been 
reached, for no man on either side had been convinced of 
wrong, when all had had their say. 

Harvey listened to both arguments until the conclusion. 
Then he asked the chairman and chief for the privilege of 
speaking half an hour. They readily granted his request. 
With great tact he went over the grievances of each party, 
granting to both his full belief in the truth of their state- 
ments, and that they should have redress. Then he led 
them from their quarrel and pictured the suflering of 
the world from rum. The hundreds of thousands of 
desolate hearts, and hundreds of thousands of wretched 
homes all over our own land, and the many more over the 
world. He told of the mighty aggregate of suffering that 
was weighing down men, helpless women and children, 
who had no redress. “ Such suffering, in this single 
city in which we are now,” he said, “ if known to any 
here, he would not be able to bear up under the awful 
load, although not suffering in person, nor yet in any one 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


23 


of his own family. Only to know all, would break his 
heart, and he would die in sympathy. Then what of the 
whole world at this time? Can any one picture this mis- 
ery and woe in words? What about the future genera- 
tions? Who will carry the banner of freedom, if we 
don’t? ” At this point he sang with great power : — 

Our Banner. 

Our banner proclaims to the list’ning earth, 

That the reign of the tyrant is o’er, 

That the galling chain of the monster. Rum, 

Shall enslave mankind no more. 

’Tis an emblem of peace and hope to the world. 

Unstained let it ever be; 

And shout with glad voices as we raise it high. 

Our flag is the flag of the free ! 

Then on high, then on high, let our banner wave, 

Ar)d lead us the foe to meet; 

Let it float in triumph o’er our heads 
Or be our winding sheet. 

' And never, ah! never shall it be furled. 

Till it wave o’er earth and sea. 

And all mankind shall swell the shout. 

Our flag is the flag of the free ! 

Continuing, he said : “ Does not our beloved land and 
the whole world need us to carry this, our banner of the 
free, in the thickest of the fight, as a herald of a good time 
coming? Have we not pledged ourselves before God and 
man to stand true to our pledge and this flag; to wage an 
unremitting war on rum and its forces ? Is not this conflict 
and our actions watched from three worlds— heaven, earth 
and hell? Shall we not be rewarded for all we do for our 
beloved cause, even in this world? Then, my brothers, 
my sisters, let us be true to our pledge, our families, our 
country, the world and our God. Let us stand for right- 
eousness against every evil that shall assail us. 


24 


PROMISES FUEFILLED. 


“ If we continue this unseemly strife our beloved cause 
will not succeed. Men will go down to dishonored 
graves, to awake in eternal damnation, and the fault will 
be laid at our doors. God will be angry with us ; we 
shall miss His blessing, and it may be that we shall come 
short of eternal life itself. 

“Strife must cease; peace must reign in this order; 
unity and action must prevail; every man must answer to 
his name when called and take his place in the ranks of 
this army of reform, for mercy and freedom, building for 
the kingdom above. 

“ God will honor that man most who considers he has 
the greatest grievance, and will come forward with out- 
stretched hand to take the hand of the man who has 
offended him or done wrong. Throw all the acrid past 
aside, and seek peace ; then, slioulder to shoulder, stand 
ready for the future. God and man will know that he 
who holds back his hand from the grasp ot his oppo- 
nent’s hand is the one who committed the wrong, be- 
cause, in every case, the one that is wronged is far read- 
ier to forgive and make peace than the one that committed 
the wrong. 

“ Who is the brother, then, that will acknowledge to 
God and man and this meeting that he has been, and is 
now, in the wrong. For never, surely, was a truer state- 
ment made of the way an evil-doer stands by the evil he 
has done ; that he hates the one he has wronged, more 
than the one he has wronged hates him. 

“ My brothers, in the name of God and humanity, I ap- 
peal to you to cease this quarrel. You dare not go on 
without God visiting you in judgment; it may be in this 
world. And as you arranged yourselves over against 
each other when discussing this unhappy chapter in our 
order, I entreat you now, let every man cross the floor 
and take the hand of his brother, and say, ‘ Let us have 
peace and unity forever.’ Go, in God’s name, go ! ” 


PROMISES FUT.FILLED. 


25 


These last words were uttered in a commanding voice, 
filled with the deepest emotion. The men assembled gave 
heed to them as though spoken by a commanding general 
whom they had long learned to obey. None of them 
wanted to have others think they were most in the wrong, 
so every one of them took each the hand of his opponent 
and repeated the words of Harvey. 

The address was given with such pathos and power that 
many men and women shed tears of joy at the ending of 
the long-continued strife in such a whole-hearted and 
peaceful way. 

Many were the words of thanks that were spoken to 
Harvey, but he said : “ Praise the Lord ; He inspired me, 
and to him be all the glory.” 

On his way home from Ontario he was conscious of a 
revival of the old sorrow of five years ago. He had been 
trying to forget the past and live in the present, but he 
found he had not forgotten. 

He stopped to see Niagara Falls and the scenery about 
them. While there he wished to get a portrait of himself 
to take home, and on going into the photographer’s he 
met a young lady with features something like Maude’s, 
in whose eyes the I'esemblance was peculiarly striking, so 
much so that he was startled. In part her eyes spake the 
same dear, old varied language that Maude’s had spoken 
to him, and his intense gaze wrought up the feelings of 
the young lady so much, that when he went away from 
the studio big teardrops stood in her eyes. Yet he had 
made no attempt to attract her attention or anything of the 
sort. He had not forgotten his loved one of the past, and 
tor the time forgot himself in the presence of this woman, 
whose name he did not even know. 

Going again to view the “Thunder of Waters, the 
impulse seized him to throw himself into its mighty flow. 


•Niagara is an Indian name and signifies “ Thunder of Waters.” 


26 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


to be part of that moving ocean, instead of returning home 
to a lifelong battle, all alone against fate, unknown to the 
world, and therefore never to have any sympathy. 

As he looked at the deep repose the waters seem to find 
after their awful plunge, he thought it would be the same 
with him. In one short moment it would be all over. 
But he thought of his mother, and the dear departed one. 
If he took his own life he would not even see her in the 
better world, where pain, sorrow and parting do not come. 
He spurned the temptation from him as something that 
only a weakling would do, because it is said : “ Thou shalt 
not kill.” He turned and went his way home, more con- 
scious than ever that he had not forgotten. 

Full well he knew that he must go on living a double 
life, something that was a constant torture to him, of which 
those who have not been forced into such a life know 
nothing. To appear interested when one is not, to seem 
joyous when sorrow is gnawing at one’s heart strings, to 
have no zest for anything, but to act from a stern sense 
of duty, according to a cruel decree of fate, are hard lines 
to a weak mortal. 

He loved companionship, and his lot would have been 
brighter if he could have had it. Alice’s disposition was 
the reverse. She was ol a retiring nature, and was sat- 
isfied if she could have Harvey all to herself at home. 

This great difference in their natures made the daily life 
of Harvey very hard. He sought change in traveling ; so 
when there was a chance to do business away from home 
he eagerly embraced the opportunity. 

On these occasions Alice always chided him for want- 
ing to go away from home. She said : “You are never 
satisfied unless you are going away, or are away from 
home.” 

How little she and the world knew of the sad burden he 
was carrying day and night, sleeping or waking, at home 
or from home ! 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


27 


Harvey strove hard to do what was right. The strict 
training of his Scotch parents had kept him within the 
bounds of morality up to this time. But as yet he had not 
the inward working of the spirit and that fellowship that 
fills up every void. At times he was deeply impressed, 
yet for the most part a bitterness grew within his life that 
he himself was not aware of. 

The only real enjoyment he had was in studying the 
grandeur of nature, as seen in the mountains and valleys ; 
the beautiful color of the trees upon their slopes ; the fields 
and the canopy of heaven. The soft shades of moonlight 
and the sad music of the wind in the trees were always 
dear to him because of their very sadness and incomplete- 
ness. In these hours he lived the past all over again, for- 
getful of the present. Many hours he thus spent alone in 
communion with nature, and thought of what might have 
been his. This converse with nature alone no doubt 
saved him from deserting his post of duty. 

All things in nature had on a grandeur and beauty when 
Maude was with him ; now that she 'was gone the music 
of the birds and breezes, the flowers and trees and all na- 
ture were yet his. The}’’ were beautiful when she was 
with them ; they were still beautiful because she had been 
among them and part of them. 

This communion with nature at last led him up to na- 
ture’s God. He found that the two were inseparable. He 
learned to believe that God, having made His works so- 
perfect, in his dealings with His creatures He would not 
make mistakes. 

In some way man was at fault when there was unhap- 
piness. But even if man had made mistakes, and was 
suffering, he at last believed that God’s love for His crea- 
tures was so great that through these very mistakes and 
faults He would bring them to Himself. 

At last Harvey realized that God was love, wisdom. 


38 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


power, mercy and truth, and when He read His promise 
•“ That all things work together for good to them that love 
Him,'’ he believed that in some way, sometime, some- 
where, he would wear a crown set with jewels, which 
would give so much joy, that it would be enough recom- 
pense for the terrible burdensome cross it was his lot to 
carry. 

An earnest study of human nature also grew to be a 
great passion with him. He began to wonder if others 
were acting according to the real impulses of what was 
Iheir real selves, or were they also living a double life. 
To his mind there must be something that made each dif- 
ferent from the other. Some who were rollicky with hap- 
piness, at times, were much depressed at others ; some 
had a sameness of moods at all times ; some never were 
in a happy state at any time, while some were always full 
of sunshine. 

Bitterness, despondency, jealousy and all the evil gen- 
iuses of men and women must have had a prime cause 
sometime in the past. A close study of the characteristics 
of people as individuals revealed to him that these pecu- 
liar traits belonged to nations of which the individual was 
only a part. Yet in the cosmopolitan population of the 
world, and within the cities where all mix up together, 
these truths were not as a rule noticed by the people in 
general. 

These studies afforded some pleasure and were also a 
pastime to him. 

About this time a brother of Harvey, who had been 
away from home for several years, expressed a wish to re- 
turn to see the old homestead once more, but could not 
afford to spend the money to get back. Harvey sent him 
the money, but his coming was a sorry day for Harvey 
and several others. 

He had several schemes of money-making that he at 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


29 


once brought before Harvey. He gave glowing pictures- 
of future wealth and great gain, if certain inventions of his 
were first perfected and then patented. These inventions 
certainly did look like great labor-saving machines, and 
Harvey having in the past made money very fast by enter- 
prise and push, was too easily led into these matters, 
spending time and money freely in bringing them into a 
fit state to be patented. 

Harvey’s friends tried to show him that he was running 
a great risk in thus spending money that was so very hard 
to make. Yet Harvey told them that all the money he 
had made was by methods that required both courage and 
push, and he said to them, “ I hope it may all come out 
right in the end,” while the thought to himself was : “It 
is change, it is action that will, for a time at least, give me 
relief from the dark secret of my life, and the bondage that 
enthralls me.” 

Patents were secured in Canada and the United States 
for three different inventions, and an attempt made to 
place them in the market. The cost of this was far in ex- 
cess of that estimated. In a short time all the brothers- 
could raise was spent in these enterprises, and that which 
has happened in so many cases happened in theirs ; men 
of money, but no principle, began manufacturing the ma- 
chines, making thousands of dollars out of them, while the 
inventors had no money with which to prosecute them. 
The same old story of genius and energy, disappointment 
and loss. All these came to the brothers from the un- 
principled gre'ed of other men. 

The great outside world, with all its immensity as to 
population and the evils that exist in all their multitudin- 
ous forms, was opened to Harvey by this experience and 
by travel. Reverses he had not known up to this time 
came to him in his efforts to make money. 

At this time a great change came into his spiritual life* 


30 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


Some things had come into his life that were not good, be- 
cause of the unsatisfied longings of his heart and the fet- 
ters that held him. 

The Spirit of God had testified to him that a higher spir- 
itual life was necessary as he grew in years. 

The double life that had been his in the past and must 
be for the future, with no possible way out of it, was hard 
to bear. To say The will of the Lord be done,” is hard 
for any human heart at times ; most people have some- 
thing in their surroundings that leads them to do so, while 
some have very little. Often the individual is cut short in 
the very part of his constitutional make-up that should 
have become the spring of all earthly happiness, and the 
lack becomes a bane. So it was with Harvey. His 
whole nature revolted against discord, lack of union and 
fitness. Nature to him was beautiful beyond the power of 
language to express. All things and all creatures were 
the glorious workmanship of his God and Father. And to 
him home-life and marriage would be with a heart’s-mate 
R type of heaven. Harmony, union, fellowship, confi- 
dence, trust, congeniality, peace and happiness and all 
things else should be man’s lot here, and in some cases 
were. 

But alas for him ! He was cut short in all that consti- 
tuted the most important part of his being. To bow low 
before all, and to suffer on, with the constant, ever-present 
prodding that he had to bear — hiS reward for giving up all 
thought of himself to make others happy — it was too ter- 
rible. It seemed more than the spirit of mortal could 
bear. But at last he gave himself wholly to his God, 
“ For His good pleasure,” to be what God would make 
him. He prayed earnestly that God would transfer all the 
powers of his being to Himself and His cause. 

It would be quite natural to suppose that now Harvey 
would have more peace and more joy than at any time in 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


31 

his sad life before, but it was not so. Yet he dedicated the 
tenth of his income to the Lord, and set himself to work 
harder than ever that he might gather in money, and thus 
give more to God’s cause. All this time his cry went up 
in great earnestness, “ Lord, what wilt thou have me 
to do ? ” 

His faith in God from this time forth was sorely tried. 
Instead of success in business, as he had had in early life, 
reverses came from all quarters; and as failure followed 
failure, in everything he tried, he put forth more deter- 
mined efforts to retrieve his losses. Small they were at 
first, yet they continued to come year after year. 

A year’s. sickness but hastened the loss of the home that 
he had learned to love so much, from the great effort he 
had put forth to reclaim it. At last he was forced to leave 
the old homestead, with only a few dollars to take with 
him. 

Ornamental trees that his hands had set out in boyhood 
had grown up and made many lanes and shady nooks. 
Hundreds of fruit trees, of all varieties, that he had plant- 
ed with his own hand ; a beautiful artificial lake, with an 
island in the center, and a pretty little bridge leading to it, 
and in the centre of the island a cosy summer-house, cov- 
ered all over with vines and creepers; a flower garden 
planted and cared for by him ; many creeping vines 
trained up the side of the house, which had been remodeled 
by him, — all these he had to leave behind him for some 
one else to enjoy. But the hardest thought of all was in 
the fact that in the untiring energy that had wrought all 
this beauty and change, and which was to make his 
mother and wife happy, had now to be left forever, and 
the sacrifice of every hope and energy for others had seem- 
ingly not been counted by the Great Judge, nor yet by 
.men. 

He alone was blamed for it all, as justly deserving such 


32 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


an ending. Yes, to some it was a joy to know that he had 
to leave all, because of the very success that had once at- 
tended his efforts. Such is human nature in its unregen- 
erate state, and “ man’s cruelty to man.” 

He had not knowledge whether his God was deal- 
ing with him in anger or in love, but he did believe the 
word of the Lord when He said: “ All things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God.” In this loss of 
home his faith was sorely tried, yet he trusted God through 
it all, never doubting but in the end God’s dealings would 
all be for His own glory and also for his good. 

At the time when all these troubles had come upon his 
home Harvey’s mother died, at the ripe age of eighty-five, 
and was carried by sorrowing sons and daughters and laid 
by the side of her husband. 

Her life had been spent in the service of her Master, and 
her hope grew brighter as she came nearer the end of her 
earthl}' career. She had a joyful anticipation of meeting 
her Saviour and friends long gone before. 

It was a great comfort for Harvey when he was forced 
to leave the old homestead, that he did not have to leave 
his mother behind. He knew she was at rest in the heav- 
enly home that her Saviour had gone to prepare for her. 

When there came to him the terrible thought that he 
had to leave friends, home and native land, all things dear 
to him on earth, even the grave of Maude, he cried in 
deepest agony to God in these words, “ Except Thy pres- 
ence go with us, carry us not up hence.” God answered 
that prayer, for in their after wanderings God manifested 
His Blessed Presence always. 

As they took their last look at the old home that was so 
soon to be the home of the strangers, the heartaches that 
were theirs were only known to themselves and their God, 
for Alice mourned very deeply the loss of home and 
friends, as well as Harvey. 


PROMISES FULFILLED. * 33 

To himself Harvey repeated the touching words of 
Burns : 

“ Ye foam crested billows allow me to wail, 

E’er ye toss me afar from my loved native shore; 

Where the flower which bloomed sweetest in Coila’s green vale, 
The pride of my bosom, my Mary’s no more. 

“No more by the banks of the streamlet we’ll wander. 

And smile at the moon’s rimpled face in the wave; 

No more shall my arms cling with fondness around her. 

For the dew drops of morning fall cold on her grave.” 

Out into the great unsympathizing world they went, 
knowing not where, when they started. They had not 
even named their destination, had not even any one to 
whom to write, or to counsel them where to settle. 

But the unseen hand of God guided them and took care 
of them, by day and by night, bringing them safe to a 
haven of rest. By sea and by land they traveled until they 
came to the city of Providence, R. I., which was a manu- 
facturing centre of locomotives. 

’ Stepping out of the cars into the railroad station, and 
that on a Saturday, among stiangers, with no one to meet 
them or direct them where to go or what to do, was the 
•climax of their sad, eventful history. Alone upon a for- 
eign shore, far from home ! In after years when thinking 
of that sad hour, Harvey wrote the following verses : 

Far, Far from Home. 

My childhood’s home so far away. 

My native land so dear to me, 

I long to see, yet still I stray 

Homeless, in lands beyond the sea. 

I’ve found new friends, they’re true to me. 

But not so dear as friends of yore. 

The scenes and forms I long to see 
Come not, I’m on a foreign shore. 

Far, far from home. 


4 


34 


PROMISES FUEFILLED. 


I view the trees, the lanes, the fields, 

I hear the birds sing songs of love, 

But oh ! no joy a rapture yields 
As those sweet days, so like above. 

We talked, we sang of love’s young dream. 
When all was sweet as ’lysian bowers; 

We hoped to float far down life’s stream. 

And never thought we’d gather flowers 
Far, far from home. 

In dreams I feel the balmy breeze, 

Fragrant air of “The Starry Night,” 

Which made sweet music in the trees. 

As I mused in the fading light. 

We sing the songs of “ Home, Sweet Home,” 
“Exiles No More,” and “ Home Again;” 

Sad, sad old songs to those who roam. 

In distant lands far o’er the main. 

Far, far from home. 

The graveyard by the river side. 

Where friends I loved, so long have lain, — 

“The long ago” dim shadows hide 
The home we may not see again. 

The withered leaves of life roll on. 

By storm-tossed winds in trackless flight. 

Until the race of lif&is run 

And shrouded in the solemn night. 

Near Father’s home. 

See! from that home beyond the skies. 

Hands are waved from the golden shore. 

Oh, come to rest, no more goodbys. 

Here pains and tears shall be no more; 

Sweetly they say: “ This is your home. 
Mansions are here prepared for you. 

Here you will find your loved ones. Come, 
They’re watching and waiting for you. 

In Father’s home.” 

So when my bark has reached that shore. 

By raging storms no longer driven. 

I’ll see my friends who’ve gone before. 

As ransomed souls, we’ll meet in heaven. 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


35 


We’ll sing the songs of love and praise, 

When we shall see Him face to face. 

We’ll tell His love through endless days, 

The joyful theme — we’re “ Saved by Grace,” 

' And home at last.” 

It all appeared like a dream, in which, on wings, they 
had traveled far ; and then awoke to find it all a dreadful 
reality. 

With the characteristic energy of a Scotchman, in a 
few hours he had rented a house, and at once had their 
household goods that they had brought with them, placed 
therein. 

' The much-needed rest that they could not get before 
starting or while journeying, was now obtained. 

Whatever time was needed for rest or to meditate at 
this important time, Harvey felt it was not the time or 
place for him to sit down to rest ; for him it was action, 
and action immediately. 

All that could be done to make Alice comfortable on 
that Saturday having been accomplished, Harvey rose 
early in the morning, which was Sabbath, and went to the 
nearest church ; there to give praise to God for His kind 
guidance and wonderful love and watchfulness over them 
in their long journey, and for bringing them at last to an 
abiding place. 

They had committed themselves to God’s care, and true 
to His promises. He had taken care of them. 

The minister of this church was an earnest Christian 
and proved to be a true friend of these strangers who had 
come to his church from the land of their birth. So after 
a time, they joined this church. 

On the Monday following some furniture was bought, 
including tables, chairs, bedsteads, dishes, and many other 
things, so that the rooms they had chosen began to assume 
the appearance of home. 


3 ^ 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


Tuesday morning Harvey at once set out to get employ- 
ment of some sort. He never thought of rest for himself, 
even for one day. Not having learned any trade, it 
would seem as if it would be hard to make a choice of 
any vocation whereby he could make a living. But he 
at once made a choice, and that was as a carpenter. 
The world knows the Americans to be the best trades- 
men in the world, and surely it was presumption on his 
part to set himself up as a tradesman among them, when 
throughout his whole life he had never w'orked for any 
length of time as a carpenter for any one. 

Pie got a position at the very first place he asked for 
work. He was told to come to work on Thursday, so 
that on Wednesday he bought some carpenters’ tools, 
whereby to make a start in a new vocation. 

He not only got the highest wages at this place, but he 
held his position for nine months, or until the work was 
completed. Stranger still, he was appointed foreman over 
some work before nine months were ended, taking pre- 
cedence over men wdio had worked many years at wood- 
work. 

For some years he followed the carpenter’s trade, being 
successful at every place he worked, and no man ever 
knew but that he had been a carpenter all his life. In 
almost every case Harvey was set to do the most difficult 
or the finest work. His greatest trouble was to know the 
different parts by the names by which they were distin- 
guished, but of course this difficulty was soon sur- 
mounted. 

At this time a water company, in another part of the 
state, was engaged in a huge enterprise of transporting 
water to a city nineteen miles distant. The pipes through 
which the water was taken were four feet in diameter, 
and made of boiler-plates. This pipe line was canned 
over mountains, vallej-s and rivers at an enormous ex- 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


37 


pense. -Many men were employed ; men who could think 
and act for themselves were the ones who were needed, for 
few had ever had experience in that kind of work before. 

Harvey sought the position of a foreman in this work. 

Full well he knew he would have to depend on himself 
at all times, and yet he was not afraid of accepting such a 
place, after the ease with which he had held the other 
position, among the best tradesmen in the world. He se- 
cured the position he sought for, and filled it very satisfac- 
torily to the company and to himself. 

He had charge of from forty to sixty men every day. 

Many favors were shown to Harvey by the head men of 
the company, because he adopted new plans in almost 
everything he did. In three cases he detected errors in 
the surveys made by the engineers, and hundreds of dollars 
were thus saved to the company by his acuteness. 

In general, men who follow public work of this kind 
have no fear of God before them, and only with enough 
fear of man to keep them from the clutches of the law. 
Such company was not congenial to Harvey, but no man 
ever derided him for his close observance of the Sabbath, 
and for doing what was right. 

He was asked to work on the Sabbath, but he absolute- 
ly refused, and was not asked the second time. Men were 
under restraint when in his presence, because his daily 
walk was consistent with his profession. 

At this time, any one associating with Harvey would not 
know but that all things in his life were such as went to 
make him happy, for he always tried to make others 
happy. Yet at times a loneliness came over him that was 
almost overpowering, when he thought of the dreadful 
past, of the double life he had to live, and the darkness of 
his future. Although he was permanently settled as to 
his hope of salvation and of eternal life, for no doubts had 
ever come into his mind of this assurance since he had 


38 


PROMISES FUEFILLED. 


given himself up to his God. His whole aim in life now 
was to be as nearly as possible in total conformity with the 
image of Christ, as he said : “ Thou art worthy, O Lord, 
aud I am in Thy hand for Thy pleasure.”* He could 
look forward into the time when all his loneliness 
would be turned into a blessed reunion with the spirits 
above, when his trials would be all over, and rest, sweet 
rest, from all care would be his portion forever. He was 
certain that when his life’s journey was ended, the tears 
would be all wiped away from his eyes by the hand of God 
Himself. The pains and sorrows of the past would be all 
over. 

For the most of the time his Christian life was full of 
hope and peace from this indwelling of the Spirit. 

The company for which he worked had to move from 
place to place, as their work was all contract work 
on a large scale. The next contract which they secured 
was in Philadelphia, and Harvey went with them, leaving 
Alice in Providence, until he could secure a house suitable 
for them ; then he was to return and bring her to Philadel- 
phia. 

He had secured a house and had written to Alice that 
he was coming to Providence to move their belongings to 
Philadelphia. Before he started, however, he received a 
letter from her asking him to come to her, as she was sick 
with an attack of pleurisy. Harvey hastened to the sick 
bed of Alice, and found her much worse than he had ex- 
pected. He called in another doctor to consult with the 
one that Alice had called. 

After a consultation of these two men they told Harvey 
that they could hold out little hope for her recovery. 
Everything was done to restore her to health, but nothing 
availed, and she gradually grew weaker. 

At last Alice believed she was dying, and asked the doc- 

■*Rev. 4:11. Jer. 18:1-6. 


PROMISES FUI.FILLED. 


39 

To this question 


tor if there was any chance of recovery, 
the doctor said : 

“ I cannot hold out any hope to you. I am afraid the 
end of this life for you is near.” 

Then she said to Harvey -• 

“You have heard what the doctor has just said. I know 
he has spoken the truth. It is only a question of time 
when I shall join those who have gone before me, and I 
am content because it is God’s will. It is His summons 
to me to come up higher. 

“ Harvey,” she continued, “ when I am gone I would 
like to be buried in the land of my birth, by the side of 
my father, my mother and Maude. I know you cannot 
well afford it, but you have saved enough to grant me this, 
my last request.” 

“ Yes, Alice, I will do as you ask. Your remains shall 
be laid to rest by their side in the dear old homeland.” 

This promise rested her, but in another week she became 
unconscious, and in three days after she died. 

Faithfully Harvey fulfilled his promise to her. 

As he laid her by the side of Maude all the past came 
up vividly before him, and he asked himself: 

“Why was I born with only regrets to live upon.? If 
God had called me early, surely it would have been bet- 
ter.” How much better off were the two sisters than he. 
They had met again on the other side of the river, but he 
was now alone and a homeless wanderer upon the face of 
the earth, without any tie, without any special work to do 
for either God or man. 

He stayed in his native land just long enough to com- 
plete the funeral services and take one look at his old home 
and its surroundings, and to see the old places where he 
had wandered with Maude, but this was only adding sor- 
row to sorrow. He fled from it all as something that was 
more than he could bear. 


40 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


As he was driven to the station a more heartbroken 
man, perhaps, did not live in the world. 

Utterly alone he cried to God for a word to guide and 
comfort him, and it came: “ I will never leave thee nor 
forsake thee.” 

Comforted by these words he hastened back to Provi- 
dence and disposed of all the household goods, except a 
few small articles. Then he went back to his employers 
in Philadelphia. He must employ his mind as the best 
means of relief at present. 

In this work there was too much sameness, and he left 
it in three months and returned to the city of Providence. 

An engineer, who had some acquaintance with Harvey, 
sought him out to come and take charge of his shop. This 
man sold engines, boilers and dynamos, and fitted them 
ready for use for the one to whom they were sold. It was 
quite natural that Harvey should hesitate to take hold of 
this new work and its great responsibility, and it was only 
after repeated solicitation, that he at last consented to un- 
dertake the work. In this, as in every other place he had 
filled, he was successful. 

At the end of the second week Harvey found three dol- 
lars more added to his week’s pay than that which was 
agreed upon at the first. 

The most perplexing questions constantly came up, of 
how to arrange matters as to setting engines and dynamos 
in peculiar places, questions that could not be decided by 
any past experience. It was in questions of this kind that 
Harvey found himself at home, quickly deciding on the 
best means to adopt and ways to follow, that always proved 
satisfactory to himself and his employer. 

Although his hands had been trained all his life to other 
employment, he now had the opportunity to do the work 
that he longed to do in early life. 

Many men of Harvey’s stamp have come from all parts 


PROMISES FULFILLED. 


4 


of the world to the land of freedom to start life anew, who 
with their independence of action have largely helped to 
build up the greatest Republic the world ever saw, and 
have materially contributed to the force that has made a 
government “of the people, by the people and for the 
people.” 

Strange and yet pleasing as all this marked success was, 
in so many kinds of work different from that he had fol- 
lowed through his. past life, there was yet a discontent far 
down in the heart of Harvey, that all this satisfied not. 
A deep restlessness that he could in no way account for. 

To go on thus to the end of life, what use would he 
have been to the cause of God and humanity in the world 
Some one else could do all this work, and if not done, 
what did it matter.^ It would not save men from the 
wrath to come. He longed to enter into the service of the 
Lord, and do work that would bear fruit for eternity. 

He felt that the dreadful schooling through which he had 
passed meant a different ending than for this life only. 
Who would know that he had so lived, had so suffered.? 
Who would know of the many things he had learned in 
the days of darkness through which he had groped his 
way.? Who would profit by his experience.? In his great 
unrest, which at last became real unhappiness, he cried 
mightily to God,. “ Lord, what wilt thou have me to do.?” 

At last, it seemed as if a voice said to him, “Write the 
many things I have shown you as written in my Word, 
and which has become history in the world.” This work 
loomed up before him and seemed to be of such great im- 
portance, that it became a settled conviction to him that 
God had called upon him to give to the world the many 
wonderful and beautiful thoughts he gathered from God’s 
book, which, as seen to him, gave glory to God and caused 
him to cry out as did David, “ How wonderful are thy 
works, O Lord !” 


CHAPTER III. 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 

At the end of one year Harvey left his employer to take 
up this work that he believed the Lord had called upon 
him to do for Him and for the world. 

Many eloquent preachers he listened to, telling of the 
blessed time when men should beat their swords into 
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks ; of a 
time when “ nations should not study war any more,’^ 
when universal peace should reign upon the earth. But 
year after year as they preached, the fact became obvious 
to every thinking man, that the great point the nations 
were trying to reach with every energy applied thereto, 
was the perfection of instruments of war that would deal 
out death and destruction to all who opposed them. He 
had heard many eloquent socialists speak of the right that 
every man had to a home of his own ; but neither soHal- 
ist nor preacher ever told of God’s plan, or of that happy 
day when “ all men shall know the Lord.” “ Thus saith 
the Lord, in that day they shall sit every man under his 
vine and under his fig tree ; and none shall make them 
afraid.”* No rent to pay, no interest or mortgage to pay, 
nor the fear of foreclosure, or of being cast out into the 
world, homeless. A time when every man should have a 
home of his own. God had also said that love to God and 
love to man should predominate in the hearts of men in 


*Micah, 4: 4. 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


43 


that day, that “ every man would say to his neighbor, 
Come sit with me under my vine and my fig tree.” 

But alas ! love is not the predominant force or motive of 
the world to-day. Freedom and liberty are being super- 
seded by oppression and slavery. 

None of the socialists, and few of the preachers come 
any nearer to that standard than the many others they 
preach against. They do not recognize their neighbor or 
brother or sister in the men and women who dwell in 
hovels and in the slums of great cities. They never say 
to them, “ Come into my house, and I will share with you 
my good clothing. I have two coats, I will give you one. 
You are my brother, and are in need of food and clothing. 
The love we have for our God and you, our brothers, im- 
pels us to supply your needs.” Neither do they ask these 
poor ones: “Have you found salvation? Flave you a 
hope of eternal life? Do you know Jesus as your per- 
sonal Saviour? ” 

In the great cities the majority of the leaders of theology 
care for none of these things. As far as can be seen, the 
motto of too many of them is “Every man for himself; 
get all you can, and keep all you can.” 

The thinking man could easily see that in many cases- 
the working men have not enough for themselves, not even 
the necessaries of life ; indeed they too often give some of 
the little they have to help to build up the large salaries of 
the gentlemen of ease. Their orders are given to the 
sheep with great arbitrariness. They say, “ Pay us more ; 
give us an inci'ease of salary ; feed us first and yourselves* 
afterwards. We are college men, while you are only 
common people.”* 

•The Rev. Dr. George , was once traveling in Canada, and in visiting 

Montreal, went to see one of the churches there. When he came back to his own 
church, located in a city in New Jersey, he gave a history of his travels. He told 
his people of his visit ^o this church, and of his meeting the sexton of this, 
church who, he said, was quite an intelligent fellow. “But,” said he, “I soon 


44 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


History had again repeated itself. We read in the 
Scripture of the greed of the shepherds (priests) of 
olden time. “ Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do 
feed themselves ! should not the shepherds feed the flocks.? 
Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with wool, but ye feed 
not the flock.”* 

The Lord asked the priests of Israel, “ Who is there 
oven among you that would shut the doors for nought.? 
Neither do ye kindle the fires on mine altars for nought. ”t 
So that the same question could be asked of far too many 
ministers of to-day. It is becoming a common practice 
for some clergymen to ask a fee for preaching a funeral 
sermon. 

All this dreadful state of matters became known to Har- 
vey in his associations with the people and their so-called 
shepherds. He felt that it required little foresight to see 
that this was not leading up to the days of the Millennium 
by righteousness, when no man shall say to his neighbor, 
“ Know the Lord,” for all shall know the Lord, from the 
least even to the greatest. ♦ 

The self-sacrificing life of Christ for the relief of suffer- 
ing humanity — suffering with them — is not the part the 
majority of the ministers choose. They act not as shep- 
herds of God’s flock. They feed not the flock as they 
were commanded : “ Feed my sheep ; ” but instead, they 
were become “as lords over God’s heritage. They 
were in the service for what they could get out of it; or 
they were doing the work for the very thing that the words 
of the Scripture forbid them to do, “for filthy lucre’s 
sake.”§ Many poor and godly families gave to them that 
which they greatly needed for the comfort of those in their 
own homes, whom they had vowed to love and cherish. 

let him know that there was a vast difference between a bell-rope puller and a 
preacher of the gospel.” 

*Ezek. 34: 2-3. tMal. i: 10. Jt Peter 5: 3. §i Peter 5: 2. 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 45 

The clang of hammers beating ploughshares into swords 
and pruning hooks into spears among all nations, the tre- 
mendous increase of crime, and the cry of millions of lost 
souls, so agonizing to the loving Saviour, the pitiable wail 
of the hungry, the cry of desolate millions going up from 
all parts, against which is pitted the. damnable and unnat- 
ural greed of man, are all mighty forces of the enemy 
leading the world far away from “peace on earth, and 
good will to men,” far away from loving “ thy neighbor 
as thyself,” and so far away from the whole teaching of 
Christ and God’s Word, that it is a certainty that the 
church has drifted far from her moorings into a stormy 
sea, without helm or compass to steer or guide by. 

God lifts up His standard before the world : “ Whosa 
hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, 
and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how 
dwelleth the love of God in him ? 

Harvey was prompted to oppose these dreadful evils 
that were springing up within the church. His own suf- 
fering life had been such that he wished to leave the world 
richer because he had so struggled with it, and because the 
evil fate that followed him had led him to see how the 
poor and suffering of earth are left alone to die, by the 
very men who have had themselves appointed as the ones 
to have an oversight over the poor of the flock. 

All these evils he saw very clearly, yet beyond them all 
he saw a “ feast of fat things,” for the true followers of 
Christ. 

He could not bear the thought of being an idler in God’s 
workshop, amusing himself for the day, waiting for death 
to claim him, and leave no trace of good behind him. 

He had a great longing to lead others to the unsuspect- 
ed land of love and reward that will come into the path- 
way of the suffering ones of earth who have been faithful,. 


John 3: 17. 


46 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


who have never thrown down the cross given them to carry 
for their God and Saviour. Those who know that unless 
they carry their cross will never wear a crown. He had a 
great desire to cheer the soldiers of the cross onto victory. 
On, on, through the perilous times ” spoken of by Paul. 
The days of tribulation foretold by Christ. 

He was firm of the opinion that the world and the 
church were at the beginning of the “ perilous times ” that 
Paul spoke of.* “ The last days”t of this age that Peter 
had spoken of. The “falling away”! that comes pre- 
vious to the most wonderful event that earth-dwellers ever 
saw — the coming of Christ. 

But before the Lord could use Harvey in this great 
work he was to be called upon to pass through the most 
severe trial and temptation of his life. Sorrowful, tempt- 
ed and tried as he had been up to this time, yet there was 
one more agony to sweep down upon him like a bird of 
prey. 

He was to be one of those who would be sorely tried 
and tempted. God would know all that was in his heart, 
to know whether or not He could give him the great re- 
ward given to overcomers in the end. “ To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even 
as I overcame, and have sat down with my Father in His 
throne.” 

It is just in such ways and in such matters of everyday 
life that God is testing men and women to see if they are 
fit for the greater work that He has for them to do. 

Harvey supposed he had been so schooled that he would 
have no trouble ; that is, if he thought at all on the sub- 
ject. Had he not given himself wholly up to the service 
of the Lord ? Through these last years of his troubled life 
was it not his prayer to his God that every affection of his 
nature should be transferred to his God and his cause? 

*2 Tim. 3; I. fz Peter 3: 3. tz Thess. 2: 3, 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 47 

“ He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my 
disciple.” 

Harvey was to be tried as gold is tried, to see if he 
could be trusted in the thick of the fight, which was so 
near at hand. 

Yet God would know all that was in his heart. He 
would know if there was anything in all the world that 
Harvey could be taught to love better than his God. The 
Lord would say to him, as he said to Peter : “ Lovest thou 
me more than these?” 

He became acquainted with a young lady named Verna 
Rodell, a sweet Christian spirit that for years had been en- 
gaged in the work of the Master. 

Without any design or thought of danger Harvey and 
Verna met in Christian fellowship, each finding in the 
other a something that was pleasing and satisfying to a 
degree they could not explain. 

It did seem to them that their regard for each other was 
the result of the work that they were both so much inter- 
ested in seeing prosper. And it was indeed so. They 
had a kindred subject ; they were kindred spirits brought 
together to further that work. The great unrest of both 
their lives had been largely overcome by active service in 
the cause they had learned to love. They both had within 
them the solitary loneliness of every human being who is 
not in daily fellowship with a heart’s mate. 

Verna possessed a sensitive, fanciful spirit, that gave a 
delicacy and originality to everything she said or did. She 
had a sweet voice, which is one of the essentials that go 
to make a perfect woman. When she gave way to laugh- 
ter it was so natural, so full of happiness, that it was like 
sweet strains of music. 

Her conversation was intelligent and natural: like a 
mountain rill, sweet and sparkling, that both refreshed and 
soothed Harvey. It was indeed a new experience to him. 


48 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


It was as if he had come to the borders of an Eden, the 
very confines of which gave him a peace and a quiet joy ; 
a land that had always been to him a vista from the far dis- 
tance ; a place he saw many enter, but which was forbid- 
den to him. 

Verna was not long in making the discovery that there 
was a hidden, smoldering fire in his nature that at first ex- 
cited her curiosity; then she became interested in him. In 
her woman’s heart she began to have a sympathy for him, 
as she heard him talk, sometimes in such terse, almost 
fiery language, of many things. She soon recognized that 
it was a feeling such as she had never known. 

It was not sentiment, but it was that- which had become 
the imperious demand of her whole nature. 

Harvey fully recognized the beauty of her character, as 
we have tried to describe it. His heart was but partially 
awakened. As yet he saw in his dreams only the far away 
happy land. 

At times she perplexed him. Her moods had become 
varied. Sometimes she evidently wished to avoid him, 
at others she was frankness itself. An unexpected meet- 
ing between them brought the rich blood to her face and 
the turning away of her eyes from him. 

It is possible Harvey’s affections would never have gone 
out to Verna if he had not found out that she had first 
loved him. But when he became aware of that fact he 
would not have been human, if he had not responded to 
this, the language of that sweet spirit, which from the 
first had so much interested him. 

She was innocence and purity itself, yet he knew not of 
the passion that was growing in his heart that had been 
dead so long. He thought it was a friendship of a lofty 
kind, it was so natural and comforting to both hearts. 
Her sweetness and womanhood were daily winning him 
more and more, so that the touch of her hand thrilled 


greatest joy and greatest pain. 49 

every part of him, while her voice was to him as a voice 
from another and better world. 

At las<: he found out to his dismay that the charm was 
not fellowship, but love for the heart and life of a sweet 
woman, whose character was rounded out by the touch of 
the Divine Love, and from long communion with the 
Father of all. More than that, years of earnest, devoted 
labor in her Saviour’s work, had completed the work. 

After many years he had found a living heart’s mate. 
They might never be united in marriage, but they were 
one in hearts, thoughts and purposes. 

Why had such a chapter come into their lives? Why 
was it necessary for them as Christians to suffer in this 
way ? 

They both believed that if there were no cross there 
would be no crown. But they asked themselves: “Why 
so heavy the cross? Would the crown be filled with jew- 
els, according to the burden of the cross? ” 

Hi^rvey wondered why the unhappy secret of his past 
life had to be all lived over again. He thought he had put 
it behind bars and bolts, that would hold it hidden, until 
the Great God would call him to his eternal home. Why 
was this new agony thrust upon him? And yet there was 
a silver lining to the otherwise dark, overhanging cloud. 
Why was it that his heart was not made of stone, in- 
stead of human flesh and blood, depending upon its hap- 
piness for love ? Why was it that neither of them had con- 
trol of their feelings? Why was this immeasurable love 
put into their hearts to mock them? Who was to blame 
for this dark secret that came to them unsought, unasked, 
and when both hearts were filled with a true love for God 
and His Christ; and with a great joy in their hearts be- 
cause the Lord was using them to bring souls to the - 
Saviour. 

Previous to their acquaintance they had peace and rest; • 


50 GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PA]N. 

because they had found salvation through the washing 
away of their sins in their Saviour’s blood. Then well 
might they ask why had this thing come upon them ? 

Yet this love came to both of them as unconsciously as 
.life itself. It was a natural love within both hearts, at 
nearly the same time, because they were exactly suited to 
each other. 

The past in both of their lives had lacked mutual com- 
panionship, and at times they longed for something, they 
knew not what. Vet they were not murmuring ; they had 
long since learned to say : “ Father, not my will but Thy 
will, be done.” But here a new trial had come to them, 
new chains encircled them, that no force or effort of theirs 
could break. They experienced a joy in each other’s 
presence, and in their conscious love, that was sweet to 
each of them, and in no way did it impair the sweet fel- 
lowship they had with the Living God. He had created 
them with this deep longing for human love, human 
fellowship. But these hearts, thus called together, 
brought to each other an immeasurable sadness, bordering 
on despair. 

They had not seen each other for several weeks, and 
during that time Verna’s spirit had been so wrought up 
that she felt that she must see Harvey, so she sent the fol- 
lowing note to him : 

“Dear Mr. Douglass: 

“ If this reaches you in time, and if it is convenient for you, 
I should be pleased to have you call this afternoon at five o’clock. I 
owe you several apologies, and will fully explain when I see you. 
The fact has troubled me very much. 

“Yours sincerely, 

Verna Rodell.” 

Harvey was going away from his boarding house, when 
he met the messenger with Verna’s note. It was then 
half-past four, so that he had only half an hour to meet 
Verna at her home. 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 51 

At the time he thought it was the kindness of God that 
he had met her messenger, at the only time when he could 
have kept the appointment. 

It was half-past five when he reached her home. 

“ You did get my note.^^” she said. 

“ Yes, I met the messenger as I was coming out of the 
house ; it was then half-past four.” 

“I am so glad you got it in time. There are many 
things I wanted to say.” 

“ I have been so busy, and had so little time to myself, 
that this is the first opportunity in all this time that I could 
see you,” said he. 

In their former meetings they had talked of many things, 
including their own history. Their affection for each oth- 
er had not been a subject for words, but each knew the 
deep emotion of the other’s heart. 

The bud was opening. It was beginning to send its 
sweet fragrance into each soul. A fragrance such as few 
of earth’s mortals ever had the opportunity to have breathed 
into their lives. Sweet above all others, it was also a cup 
of bitterness far beyond anything they had been asked to 
quaff before. And yet it was the very bitterness of the 
cup that went to make up the sweet of the sweetness. 

“ How is it,” said Harvey, “ that when with you, such 
a peace and deep content comes into my troubled heart.?” 

“ It is quite possible that each of us would meet others 
outside of our home that are more kindred in spirit than 
those we have in our homes,’' said Verna. 

When with you it is like what I have often pictured to 
myself in my sorrow ought to be ‘ home, sweet home.’ 
Surely, to be with those we love, is the type of home that 
God first set up in Eden.” 

Verna’s voice was husky as she said, “ Outside of the 
work of the Lord, my life is just as empty as yours is. 
When a woman with a true, sensitive nature — and that is 


52 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


what makes a true woman — is without the companionship 
that heart and soul crave, in her innermost heart she is a 
dissatisfied woman. A true woman always yearns for love 
and happiness until her hopes are realized.” 

“ Then, Miss Rodell, how is it with men who have been 
compelled to raise up a home that at no time has had a 
glimmer of light that would enable them to see a glorious- 
fulfillment of their sweet, endearing pictures of home.? I 
believe it to be a fact, that men and women who are thus 
constituted and surrounded by the opposite of what their 
souls crave, do not as a rule become callous to the finer 
feelings ; instead, they become like a smothered volcano, 
ready to break forth at a time least expected.” 

“Yes, the fact that happiness has eluded our grasp 
makes us more anxious to find it ; yet the object we seek 
and the way we seek it, are bound up in the heart of the 
one we are seeking and who can fill up every void. It is 
so hard that that which would seem should be ours, does 
not belong to us.” 

“ I have wondered why this true happiness that might 
have been ours has eluded our grasp. Living with you 
would be ecstasy — something akin to heaven. Up to the 
present my heart has been given up to the Fates to be filled 
with what agony they will, and I wonder what will come 
next. With you I would find a balm for every wound in 
my life.? Instead it may be that which will bear me down, 
down into that place from which I shall never return.” 

“ You should not talk so,” said Verna ; “ have you not 
told me that God never makes any mistakes.? Then, be- 
lieving thus in Him, can we not wait His time.? ‘ Some- 
time, somewhere,’ all shall turn out an ‘ exceeding^ joy,’’ 
even if we have to wait that time in the far distant future, 
wlien His loving hand ‘ shall wipe away all tears from all 
faces.?’ May it not be that this chapter in our lives, so full 
of sorrow now, may be that which will round out our 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


53 


characters, and beautify them for the highest pinnacle of 
happiness. in that Home that Christ said He was going to 
prepare for us ? ” 

“ I am sure of one thing, that our happiness in heaven 
will not be complete until we meet each other there,” he 
answered. 

“ I fully agree with you in that, but having been called 
to carry this great burden., let us bear it nobly and never 
falter by the way, lest others who are watching us should 
lose heart. Let us not cry out in our grief ^ but keep our 
lips shut, moving steadily forward to that goal which will 
be ours, when our Lord says, ‘ It is enough, come up 
higher.’ 

“ You know we are told to ‘ Look to Jesus, the author 
and finisher of our faith ; who for the joy that was set be- 
fore Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is 
now set down at the right hand of the throne of God.’ 
Then if we are patient, the longer we have to bear this our 
earthly cross, the greater will be the joys that God is lay- 
up in store for us. 

“ I could have been married before if I had chosen, but 
the Lord kept me back from that state. I have seen so 
many cases of unfitness, that I have had a dread of the 
bonds and chains I would have to wear, especially when I 
had not met the one I could be happy with. I have a se- 
cret joy dwelling deep down in here,” she said, putting her 
hand unconsciously to her heart, while her face fairly shone 
with the crimson of her sensitive nature, “ that I am still 
free.”' 

Harvey’s feelings were highly wrought up at her words 
and the motion of her hand. 

“ Miss Rodell,” said he, “ as I look into the dark misty 
years that lie before us, with all your graces, the question 
comes up before me. How long will she be frqe? Will she 
forget? Will she forget to keep her promises? Such 


54 GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 

thoughts madden me. The hopes and the fears, the sweet- 
ness and the bitterness, the sunlight and the awful dark- 
ness of such an ending would be worse than many deaths. 
Yet in saying all this to you, I may appear the very per- 
sonification of selfishness. But if it be so, I can not help 
it. I have said it, and at this time I can not unsay it.” 

“ Mr. Douglass,” she said, looking him in the face 
with blushes, “If we cannot be united, we can live for 
each other ; we can be true. Though we do not meet a 
half a dozen times in our lives, that would be better than 
a loveless marriage. Sometimes we may touch hands, and 
we can remember each other’s faces.” 

Then her face lit up with a supernatural joy as she said, 
“ It may be thaf our spirits will have sweet fellowship in 
our daydreams, as well as in the night, that will cheer us 
on, on to the end.” 

“ This hope will prolong my life,” said Harvey ; “ I 
have lived these many years hopeless of any earthly joys 
ever being mine. I have counted the weeks, months and 
years, for the time when He would take me away from 
earth and earthly associatioris.” 

“ God bless you. Miss Rodell, for >our comforting 
words; and He will bless you, for they will sweeten the 
life of one who has never had anv joys.” 

“ God pity us both,” she replied; “and He will pity 
us, for He has written, ‘ Like as a father pitieth his chil- 
dren, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.’ I fear 
Him, or I would now be tempted to break the vows made 
years ago,” said Harvey. 

“The Lord asks the question,” continued Harvev, 
“‘What profiteth it a man, if he gain the whole world, 
and lose his own soul.^ Or what would he give in ex- 
change for his soul ’ Oh, Miss Rodell, if I owned all 
this world I would freely give it up to be united in a love- 
bound marriage with thee.” 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


55 


“ But you might be giving your soul in exchange for 
me ; and God values our souls as far more valuable than 
all the world, and do not you?” 

“ Yes, I do, and the hope of meeting you in the sum- 
mer-land, where eternal verdure and blossom greets the 
eye ; where the wisdom of God., and the love of Jesus 
will be poured out to make his loved ones happy., is the 
magnet that makes me cling to the ‘ Rock of Ages,’ ‘ the 
cross of Christ ! ’ God has seen fit to try you and I very 
severely, and if, when He has thus tried us. He should 
have found us wanting, how great would be our shame ! 
The very thought makes me tremble.” 

You, Miss Rodell, can be faithful, but can I?” 

I will pray for you that you may not faint by the way. 
Christ gave up heaven. He gave up life itself for us ; then 
can not we abide in love to Him first, and to one another 
next? There is no doubt but that He is saying to us as 
He said to Peter, lovest thou me more than ye love one 
another? Plainly He says: If not, you cannot become 
my disciple. He is saying to us : ‘ Of two loves, which 
will you choose? ’ ” 

“ Well, Miss Rodell, I know which I love best. I 
would sooner offend all the world and you, dearest, than 
my God and Saviour. Can you say the same?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Then we shall overcome ; we shall not be found want- 
ing in that great day of reckoning.” 

It can truly be said that their love for God and His 
Christ rose above all this agony, this maelstrom of misery 
in both their hearts. Now that they had spoken freely and 
the truth was known to both, it was such a mixture of joy 
and sorrow, that for a time it filled every waking hour of 
their lives. To Harvey, the knowledge that the affection 
was mutual, was a great joy. 

“ In all our grief,” said Harvey, “ it is pleasing that we 


56 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


have had this long interview alone, with nobody but God 
and ourselves as witnesses. It will be something for me 
to remember till death comes. Will you remember al- 
ways to pray for me.^” 

“ Yes; how could I ever forget that? God is our only 
hope, and He will not fail us, if we are earnest at the 
Throne of Grace.” 

“We must be careful,” said Harvey; “ no curious eyes 
must ever look in upon our hidden lives. No cold-hearted 
scoffer must ever gloat over our trouble ; the Lord may be 
fitting us to do some great work for Him in the future 
that needs just such heart-burnings before we could possi- 
bly accomplish a special work at a certain time and place. 
“ I must say good night to you now. All we can do is to 
wait on our God for comfort; trusting in His mercy that 
we may meet again, and live closer to Him. And yet 
while I talk thus, I know not what I can do until my life 
ends. God must lead, I cannot. In leaving you I feel as 
if my heart would turn to stone.” 

She took hold of his hand and said : “ Repeat with me 
the prayer of Christ to His Father : ‘ Father, not my will 
but thine be done.’ ” 

Slowly they said the words together. 

“ Now,” said Verna, “ with our hands clasped together, 
we have said the hardest words that any one of Christ’s 
followers have ever been called upon to say. While life 
lasts let them be as watchwords between us.” 

“ God helping me, I will,” he answered. 

“ I shall be the stronger for your promise,” said Verna. 
I hope we shall show courage, as Christ has commanded : 
“ ‘ Let your light so shine before men, that others may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father which is in 
heaven.’ ” 

“ But the pain of this parting ! How can we separate? 
It is the sweet and the bitter, greatest joy and greatest 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 57 

pain, life of life to our human hearts till death’s curtain is 
drawn over us.” 

“ My soul fails me at the thought of leaving you,” said 
Harvey; “ I feel so paralyzed that I am scarcely conscious 
of what I say or do.” 

“ Altho’ thou maun never be mine, 

Altho’ even hope is denied; 

’Tis sweeter for thee despairing, 

Than aught in the world beside.” 

“Good night, dearest; may God’s mercy never leave 
you ! ” 

Their hands were clasped and they looked into each 
other’s eyes; then Verna said slowly: “ Sometime, some- 
where, God will make it all right for you and I.” 

Thus they parted. 

In the days that followed Harvey prayed earnestly that 
God would sustain Verna and sweeten her life as far as 
was possible. 

Their suffering was mutual, and neither could blame 
the other in any way, because their affection was also mu- 
tual. It had come to them unsought and unknown, until 
it had become a part of themselves. 

At times Harvey seemed lost to everything. The 
sweetness of the fellowship he had with Verna, the few 
short hours they had spent together, were constantly be- 
fore him. He recalled her word^ and expressions as 
something different from what he was used to. It was to 
him a glimpse of another world. 

At times he was gloomy and abstracted, and unfit to 
perform his duties. The dreadful ordeal of his life had 
now brought a bitterness that he had never known before. 

Their meetings were very few, but one joy he had — he 
could bring her face and form up before him, in imagina- 
tion, almost any time. 

The, chains that bound him to the past were heavy, so 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


5S 

heavy that he had preferred death rather than to carry 
them. But, while in the past he had prayed for death, 
such a thing as taking his own life, or in anyway endan- 
gering it, was far from his thoughts. 

Harvey resolved to remain on the ramparts for the pres- 
ent, where, in the providence of God, he had been placed. 
He would stand on this tower alone if it had to be, al- 
thouo:h the shot and shell were falling thick around him. 
He could not, he would not surrender to the enemy the 
Gospel Standard that God, his Christ, and the Church, ex- 
pected him to carry till death. He resolved that then, 
only, should the standard fall from his hands. Then had 
he not promised Verna to remember their watchword : 
“ Father, not my will, but Thine be done?” 

It might be more than a human soul could bear. He 
might become a maniac, but he would stand by the Stand- 
ard of the Cross and keep his promise of the far past. 

The emotions of his soul in this struggle to know just 
what to do, were terrible, even to him who had become a 
giant in shutting up sorrow and ills within his own heart. 
He did not become a Giant Despair, but under the con- 
tending emotions that now almost distracted him, his face 
grew wan and haggard. 

Once in his bitterness he wrote these words : 

I love not the song of the birds, as they sing 
Of love to their mates, who speed on glad wing 

Through soft balmy air, perfumed with flowers; 

• Nor the answering note, sent back from green bow’rs. 

Would you know, or ask, wdiy so sad my refrain ? 

I call to my mate, but no voice comes again. 

My youth, in the fires of anguish, hath died; 

My life has flowed out, as the receding tide. 

O’er outstretched waters, with a broadening sweep, 

I sail far away into an ocean deep; 

Where the deep surges flow, a type of my tears. 

Which in sadness blends, with the lone weary years. 


GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 


59 


When my heart is still, and I cease to moan, 

Let my requiem song be sad in its tone. 

Where some rock-girt shore hurls back the surging sea, 

Where great billows foam, and winds whistle free. 

Far, far from men’s haunts, there, I’d make my grave. 

Oh, bury me alone, ’neath the sad sea wave. 

Verna was not so brave after Harvey went away, as 
were her words to him before they separated. The strain 
was too much for her. In her grief she became quite sick. 
It was such an outrage on all that was good and true, all 
she had been taught, all she had hoped for, that her here- 
tofore brave heart was sorely distressed. 

It was hard thus to resign life’s dreams, that at times 
were so sweet, so beautiful. Some time she had hoped to 
gain a strong man’s passionate love ; a love beside which 
all other feelings would pale. This love had come to hei\ 
and was so strong it almost made her afraid. 

The summer was hers but for an hour ; then the win- 
ter came, while an unseen, overhanging cloud had 
brought the dense darkness all around her, before she had 
a moment to pause and think. 

This great love that was hers and his had such a sweet- 
ness with all its bitterness that, compared with her former 
dull and eventless life, it gave her something to seek, even 
though impossible of fruition. Her love had gone out to 
a living man, not to an ideal, as in a vision or a dream. 
She had heard the tone of his voice, she had looked into 
his face ; she had felt the warm clasp of his hand ; she had 
listened to the story of his life, his love, as with a deep- 
toned, tremulous voice, he had told her of it all. Yea, 
more, she had given her response ; perhaps not so much 
in words as in other ways, that often speak louder than 
words, and from their very silence and the impossibility of 
hiding their feelings from one another. 

It was all real, and yet how far short of the Eden she 
had pictured for herself in her earlier days ! 


<6o GREATEST JOY AND GREATEST PAIN. 

Her thoughts became filled with a dread of the years that 
might stretch out before her. Such a vista of weariness 
and waiting, that she asked herself, “ Have I the strength 
and courage to face it?” 

She had thus brooded over this great trouble for several 
weeks, until it became well-nigh unbearable. Change she 
must have ; so she went to the sea-side for two weeks, with 
some of her friends. The sad music of the waves as they 
came in from the great ocean and ever rolled up the beach, 
soothed her spirit for a time. But the intense loneliness, 
the separation, the silence, were all new and dreadful to 
Verna. 

She had caught a glimpse of a heaven on earth, where 
two passionate souls had met in mutual affection, and 
while they were yet stretching out their hands to grasp it, 
it had receded far in the distance and left them parted and 
alone. 

Could Harvey have seen her in such deep distress, he 
would surely have reminded her of the watchword she 
had set for them both when last they had seen each other. 


CHAPTER IV. 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


Two months. What a change had come over them both 
since they last met ! While both their natures were strong, 
and under the training hand of God were rendered still 
more strong, yet the sympathy that every human heart 
craves in the awful solitude of sorrow, separation and 
loneliness, became intensified by the mighty load each of 
them was carrying. How plainly they saw that no na- 
ture, however strong, is sufficient ol itself when sorely 
tried. A certain amount of fellowship must be had, or 
the result will be disastrous. 

Only the Great Searcher of Hearts knew of the deep 
distress they were passing through. Each day they told 
Him of this love and sorrow, and thereby testified to Him 
that He had the first place in their hearts. The love they 
bore to Him was divine, born of Himself, for Himself, 
and He had promised to keep that pure until the end. 

They had His assurance, that if they would “ forsake 
all they held dear,* He would not forsake them.”t 

“ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion on the son of her womb.^ Yea, they 
may forget. Yet I will not forget thee.’T 

They were fighting the battle of life as best they could, 
looking to Him for comfort and strength. 

With this strong faith planted in their souls there could 
not be anything else but a hope that it would bring more 


tisa. 49:15.^ 


•Luke 14:33. 


tHeb. 13:5. 


62 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


happiness to them, sometime ; if not in this world it would 
be in the crown which they should wear on the other 
SIDE OF THE Great Divide, where sorrow is no more. 

They had learned that God was good, that in His deal- 
ings with His loved ones He never makes any mistakes. 
They believed that “ all things worked together for good 
to them that love God.” 

After Verna returned from the seaside she met Harvey 
and they had another long talk. 

The eager look of inquiry was very marked in both 
faces when they met. ' They did not need to say to each 
o:her : “ How are you bearing up under the cross?” That 
question was expressed in their faces. 

In his greeting Harvey said to Verna : “ I am glad to 
welcome you safe back again. Have you been sick?” 

‘‘Yes,” she answered, “I have been quite sick since I 
saw you last.” 

“ You have my deepest sympathy. I am sorry. Yet 
while we both live our pathway is not all darkness,” said 
Harvey. 

“ It is darker to me than I at first supposed it would be,” 
she said, “yet you know there cannot be a great sorrow, 
in a case like this, without first having a joy to sorrow 
over.” 

“ I never thought of it in that way before,” said Har- 
vey, “and yet it must be so. Looking at trouble in that 
way, then, the greater the sorrow, the joy must have been 
in proportion. Then we need not underrate our sorrows, 
nor yet complain.” 

“At times,” said Verna, “I look far away into the 
future, when this present will all be changed. I have not 
a doubt that if we learn our lesson of patience, even if it 
should take all of this earthly life, in the wonderful life 
hereafter we shall have a full, lasting recompense for all 
that we have passed through here. And while we are ex- 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 63 

periencing that joy we shall be conscious that it is a recom- 
pense for our suffering in the past.” 

“Such a thought will enable us to live up to our watch- 
word : “ Father, not my will but Thine be done,” he said. 

“ Yes,” said Verna, “ it surely should.” 

“I have often wondered,” said Harvey, “if there is 
any parallel case of suffering in all the world to ours. If we 
could know that there were some others who had thus suf- 
fered, and how they lived through it, whether they made 
mistakes or did that whicli was altogether right, it would 
help us, and we would profit by their example.” 

“ In that prayer of Christ which we have adopted as our 
watchword I think that, in the circumstances that led up 
to the pathetic cry of Jesus: ‘If it be possible, let this 
cup pass from me,’ we have a case far more sad than 
ours.” 

“ I am all attention ; please explain,” said Harvey. 

‘‘ I will do the best I can, but there is not any human 
mind or hand that can picture or write in such a way as to 
do the subject full justice ; and besides, I have a great fear 
in my heart that in making a comparison between our lives 
and that of our dear Saviour it may appear to bring the 
human and Divine too near the same plane.” 

“ It may seem like that to you, but if we cannot look 
to Him as an example and guide, then where and to whom 
can we go ? ” 

“ Well, the thought that is in my mind is, this is our 
great temptation, an ordeal that we are called upon to live 
through, which in some way will be for His glory and our 
good.” 

“ I see now what your thought is, ‘ that He was tempt- 
ed in all things as we are, yet without sin but I do not 
see any light, as nothing like our sorrow could come into 
His human life.” 

“ Yet I believe it did, and I will try to explain now what 


64 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


I believe has been shown to me, and if we receive it, it 
, will be of incalculable benefit and comfort to us in this 
struggle to ‘ overcome even as He overcame.’ 

Harvey looked at Verna with a look of awe, for her 
face was radiant with the sweet truths that her inmost 
soul would impart to him, as a parallel case of tempta- 
tion in the human life of our Saviour with that of Harvey 
and herself. 

He did not speak to her again, but waited for her to ex- 
press her thoughts. 

Her mind was busy picturing scenes in the home of 
Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and the great agony in the 
garden of Gethsemane. She recalled all the conversa- 
tions, the kind acts to each other, and the great cry of 
agony in the garden. 

It was all so human to her, something that she herself 
could see and understand, if no others could, because it 
was so close to her own experience. God’s work could 
not go on with her as an active disciple, unless she gave up 
all, for the sake of others, as Christ did. 

Having at last read the sweetest story of love ever writ- 
ten on any page, or that ever will be written, and also the 
offering of that greatest love on the altar of duty, so that 
a still greater love — the Divine Love — might be secured 
and retained, she looked again at Harvey as if she had 
but recently returned from the scenes in that far-away 
land. 

When her eyes again met his she realized that he was 
waiting for her to tell the story of love that she had 
just been reading. 

In measured tones she said ; “ We have been told that 
when Christ went through that supreme temptation of his 
life in the garden of Gethsemane, and prayed : ‘ Father, 
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,’ it was the 

*Rev. 3: 21. 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 65 

physical suffering that He asked the Father to let pass 
from Him. 

‘‘ It was not the fear of death, nor yet the awful manner 
of that death, that caused Him to sweat great drops of 
blood, for full well He knew that many of the martyrs 
yet to die for His sake, would suffer greater bodily suffer- 
ing while burning at the stake, than what He would suffer 
on the cross. 

“ When He gave forth to His Father that forlorn cry : 
‘ If it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, 
not my will but Thine be done,’ it was that He was 
tempted not to go any farther in the work that His Father 
had for Him to do. 

“ That such a thought should come into His life was the 
cause of those bloody drops springing forth from Flis 
brow. While previous to this He had boldly announced 
to the universe of God, that He was sent of the Father 
to do His will. Yet here the human heart shrank from 
that dreadful time of separation from its God that would 
surely come while such thoughts were passing through 
the mind of our Saviour. 

“We are plainly told that He was in all points tempted 
like as we are.* 

“ Then in that supreme hour of temptation there was 
another cause for that cry of agony which ascended from 
Christ. 

“We are told that He loved Lazarus, Martha and 
Mary. 

“ When Mary washed His feet and dried them with her 
hair He did not say to her, ‘ Do not do so,’ and we must 
believe that it was quite in the nature of human hearts for 
such a sweet spirit as Mary to love a perfect Man, as was 
Christ. 

“ Then if Mary loved Christ, could there be any doubt 

*Heb. 4: 15. • ' 

6 


66 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


but that the humanity within Him would return that love.? 

“ The Divine Historian in writing of Mary said : ‘ It 
was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, 
and wiped His feet with her hair.’* 

‘‘ This anointing was for His burial, but this ointment, 
which was very precious, was kept by Mary as the sweet- 
est token of her deep affection for Christ. A little secret 
service that she would render to Him who was dearer to 
lier than all else on earth. 

“ No doubt his separation from Mary, leaving her to 
suffer alone, wrought in part that great agony through 
which he was called upon to pass. 

“His human nature craved the sympathy of His three 
disciples in that awful hour of temptation. 

“ No one of the disciples knew of the Divine nature of 
Christ's first mission on earth, until after He had 
gone to the Father, and not until the Spirit was poured 
out upon them. 

“ So we read, ‘ We trusted that it would have been He 
who would have redeemed Israel. ’-j* 

“ ‘ Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to 
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.’j 

“Then why should Mary know that He was the Sav- 
iour, more than they? 

“ Before going into the garden Christ was at the home 
of Mary, and when there, Mary and Martha made him a 
supper. Martha was cumbered about much serving, be- 
cause Mary had left her to prepare the supper alone, while 
she anointed Christ’s feet with ointment, and wiped them 
with the hair of her head. 

“ After she had finished she still sat at Jesus’ feet and 
heard His word. Martha could not understand why Mary 
should do so. Therefore she said to Jesus : ‘ Dost thou 
not care that Mary hath left me to serve alone? Bid her 
therefore that she should come and help me.’ 

•John ii: 2. tLuke 24: 21. JLuke 24: 46. 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 67 

“ Christ knew that it was His last opportunity of speak- 
ing comforting words to Mary, and the moments were 
sweet to Him, and the carping words of Martha came 
upon them both as words that broke up an hour of the 
sweetest tenderness that was ever experienced by any on 
earth, because it was both the human and the Divine love 
blended into one. 

“ This love was as pure as heaven itself, as strong and 
enduring as is the love and power of the Almighty God, 
who created all beings, and implanted that same love 
within them, within us. As Mary sat there at the feet of 
Jesus, with the odor of the ointment encircling them, how 
sweet the moments must have been to her ! 

“ Perhaps you may have noticed it is John, who is 
called the loving apostle, that alone tells us of this act of 
Mary. 

“The purity and the sweetness of that love for Mary, 
which far transcended any other love on earth, was all sac- 
rificed by Christ on the altar of duty in obedience to 
the Father of both. The sacrifice of that love would 
bring untold blessings to others, and also to them, in that 
time when the Father’s recompense would be meted out to 
Christ and those He loved.” 

“ Then do you think God will be angry with us if we 
retain our love for each other within our own hearts, and 
yet keep our consciences void of offence before God and 
man ? ” said Harvey. 

“Did Christ cease to love Mary, or did Mary forget 
Christ.^ No, no ; her love grew into the Divine Love. So 
will ours, because this earthly love has awakened within 
us a richer, sweeter love for God than we had before we 
knew each other; at least it does with me. Is it not so 
with you ? ” 

“Yes, I have often thought since I have known you, 
‘ What must my happiness be in the presence of Jesus for- 
ever, when I am so filled with joy with you.^’ ” 


68 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


Verna dropped her eyes, and the rich color came to her 
face when Harvey said this, and she answered : “ That is 
the type of joy set before us, when we meet each other in 
the better land ; the same joy that filled the last hours of 
Christ, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured 
the cross, despising the shame. 

“Thus, you see,” said Verna. ‘ We have not a Great 
High Priest that cannot be touched with a feeling of our 
infirmities ; but was templed in all points as we are, yet 
without sin.’* ‘ For in that He Himself hath suffered, be- 
ing tempted. He is able to succor them that are tempted. ’f 
Let neither of us ever do anything rashly, but learn the 
lesson of patience that God would teach us.” 

“ This truth that you have just shown me is wonderful ! 
wonderful!” said Harvey, “And yet, as I have said be- 
fore, this is the great temptation of our lives, and if we 
could know that others have had the same sad experience, 
it would help us to bear our cross. We know that we are 
tempted in this one point. Therefore, if Scripture be 
true, Christ must also have had the same temptation, or 
He could not now succor us.” 

“Yes,” said Verna, “He has gone through all the 
forms of temptation which we would be called upon to en- 
dure, so that he might stand by and save us from their 
power. Christ has given forth to the world that there is a 
supreme hour of temptation coming upon the world to 
try them that dwell upon the earth. | It appears to me 
that men in this day try to fight the tempter alone, without 
the aid of their Great High Priest, and that is the reason 
why so many fall. 

“ ‘ For verily he took not on him the nature of angels ; 
but he took on. him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, it 
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he 
might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things per- 

*Heb, 4: 15. tHeb. 2: 18. JRev. 3: 10. 


WORDS OF COMP'ORT. 69 

taining to God. to make reconciliation for the sins of the 
people.”* 

‘‘ It would appear quite possible,” continued Verna, 
“ that Christ could have stopped working out the Divine 
Plan for the redemption of the world at the very hour of 
His great temptation. He had a free will, the same as 
we have, shown plainly by that cry : ‘ If it be possible, let 
this cup pass from me.’ Yet He submitted Himself to 
His Father’s will. 

“It was more than the will of the Father, it was His 
command to the Son, that He was thus to be tempted, and 
to overcome. Had He refused to go any farther in the 
work of Salvation, it would have been sin, and sin 
of the darkest kind; because He, being the Son of the 
Father, would be breaking His Father’s command, 
GIVEN ESPECIALLY FOR HiM. Ill that case, and rightly 
so, Christ would have been the greatest sufferer for sin in 
all God’s universe. 

“ Then, Miss Rodell, situated as we are, with the 
knowledge that God has given us, as also His Salvation, it 
would be sin indeed should we not keep our vows. 

“ When God instituted the marriage law in the Garden 
of Eden, and said : ‘ A man shall leave father and mother, 
and shall cleave unto his wife,’ He set the Divine mark 
upon the union of kindred souls. If Christ had the 
human, as well as the Divine nature, we may be sure that 
if He felt the human love within Him reaching out for 
fellowship with a womanly woman, that it did not lower 
Him to the level of humanity, but instead it set the mark 
of heaven upon human love, because He recognized it and 
felt its power, while yet He had a still higher love and 
law to attain to, in this His obedience to the special law 
and command of His Father. 


•Heb. 2: 16-17. 


70 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


“Thus we read, ‘ For the joy that was set before Him, 
He endured the cross, despising the shame.’ 

“ Thus, you see, this joy He was reaching out to was to 
be attained only by suffering. So I believe that this utmost 
joy, to which we may attain in the hereafter, can only be 
secured by suffering and the deprivation of that which our 
human nature craves. 

“ There are many lonely and trembling hearts, who, if 
they knew of our temptations and our hoped for victory, 
through Christ, would take courage and become one of 
the overcomers also. But we cannot tell them, can we.^” 

“ VVe can tell it in heaven, — 

‘When all that grieves shall pass away, 

And saints shall see the glorious day.’ 

“ VVe may be doomed ail through this life to walk in 
separate paths, without the companionship that we so 
much crave, but when we know that through this dusky 
valley lies the pathway to the eternal joy of the Glory 
Land, we may well give our pledge of truth to God and 
each other, until death.” 

Yes,” said Harvey, “ I do think that the sacredness of 
our love will make the Divine love within us grow more 
and more sacred every day.” 

A crimson flush glowed again upon her face, while 
there played around her mouth and beamed out of her 
eyes, a radiance that seemed gushing from the very heart 
of her womanhood, as she said : “ It is a Divine love 
that we have for each other, for it was God that planted it 
within us. Knowing this, it ought to be all the more 
sacredly cherished by us.” 

“You and I, Miss Rodell, do not need any visible tie to 
unite our spirits, God has joined us together, but man — it 
may be you and I, it may be some one else, it may be all 
combined — is the instrument that keeps us asunder. But 
we will abide God’s time in love.” 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


7 » 

The noise of the city had about ceased when Harvey 
rose to go. It was a gloomy hour to them, and yet with- 
in it was a charm that made them linger over it with a sad 
tenderness. Surely if angels know and weep over the sor- 
rows of mortals, many would be their tears over the part- 
ing of these two suffering ones. 

The moments were more and more precious to them as* 
they lingered. This parting, to both of them, was like 
the boundary between two worlds. Each must go to their 
duties, and carry the cross, separate and apart from the 
other, not knowing when both should meet again. 

“ Shall we not meet again?” said Harvey. 

I know not whether we shall meet on earth again or 
not,” said she, “ but we shall spend our immortal life' to- 
gether, because our fellowship here has been pure in the 
sight of God. I look into the future and can see the lights 
gleam on that distant shore, wliere you and I shall spend 
an eternity in a blessed reunion that shall far transcend 
any earthly union that might come to us here.” 

“ Good night, dearest,” said he. 

He raised her hand to his lips : “Joy will come in the 
morning.” 

“ Good night,” she answered ; “ remember our pledge 
and watchword.” 

“I will,” he said, and hurried away. 

It is not to be wondered at that he had such reverence 
for Verna, as to kiss her hand, for in all that she said there 
were such high and holy thoughts that it seemed to Har- 
vey she had already been to the Glory Land and had re- 
turned to earth but for a short time. 

Her actions were so graceful and natural that he was 
soothed when in her presence, as if an angel from God 
had ministered unto him. 

To both of them it seemed their whole lives had been 
rounded up and hedged in by prison walls in which there 


72 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


was but one window yet unbarred, while both were so la- 
den down with chains that they could not get near the 
window to go to love and home rest, — the rest of mutual 
affection, of heart to heart. 

After days of extreme suffering, Harvey drifted away 
from the sweet fellowship of the past with his God and 
Saviour, because of this great burden. 

It seemed to him more than he could carry. 

Many times he asked himself, “Why was I called upon 
to bear the mighty load of my past life, even without this 
present added ?” 

It was to him as if through the darkness of the past he 
had caught a glimpse of Heaven, that had brought an ex- 
quisite joy so very different from anything he had thought 
of or hoped to experience. 

At last in his deep distress he told God of his sufier- 
ings. The old trouble, the new sorrow, the new tempta- 
tion. He asked that God would succor Verna and himself 
through it all. He asked that a special message would be 
given him that would suit their peculiar case. He was 
afraid to trust to any passage of Scripture that memory 
would bring up as an answer, so he took his Bible and 
went on his knees in the loneliness and darkness of his 
room, and turned the book over and over so that he would 
not know where he opened it, whether it was in Genesis 
or Revelation. 

He then opened the Bible and placed his finger on a pas- 
sage, asking that that verse whereon his finger rested, 
would be God’s message to himself and Verna. 

He almost trembled as he arose from his knees and went 
to the light to read the verse that his finger rested upon. 

Clear and distinct he read the answer that he had prayed 
for: “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I com- 
fort thee.” 

And right at the same moment God would show him the 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


73 


certainty of that “ comfort” as coming from Him instead 
of from an earthly parent, in the words, “ Can a woman 
forget her sucking child? Yea, they may forget; yeti 
will not forget thee.” 

The spirit of God brought those sweet words home to 
him, and peace came into his troubled breast. 

That night he slept a sound, refreshing sleep, something 
he had not had for many previous nights. 

The soothing influence of that hour of answered prayer 
followed him by day and night for many weeks. Through 
these weeks Verna busied herself with the work of the 
Master. She was a teacher in the Sabbath School, and 
she sought more diligently than ever to get her scholars to 
live closer to the Lord each time she met them in the 
classroom. She also called to see in their homes .those 
who had not yet given the testimony of being born again. 

None were so devoted where sickness was as was 
Verna, ready at all times to help those within her sphere, 
who needed help. 

In every case where she visited the suffering ones her 
manner was so sweet and tender that she always brought 
comfoi*t and consolation. No household or individual, 
however filled with trouble, but she was able to let in 
some sunshine. Having suffered so keenly herself, and 
having found the only remedy, she was well able to help 
perishing ones to reach out to that One who was waiting 
to r'eceive them. The sufferer’s extremity was her oppor- 
tunity to show the way to them from this world, across the 
verge of time into futurity, into the Father’s House. 

She was ready and willing to show the anxious one 
where to set his feet firmly on the Rock of Ages, although 
his earthly lights were growing dim. 

Thus she worked on as the months went by, hoping, 
wor-king, praying, trusting and waiting. 

How sweetly the promise of God came to her, day by 


74 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


day: “Fear thou not, for I am with you: be not dis- 
mayed ; for I am thy God : I will strengthen thee : yea, I 
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteous- 
ness.”* 

Through these weeks Harvey was seeking for the deep 
things of God. as foretold in His Word and fulfilled in his- 
tory. He had found a golden thread running through 
God’s Word, which had its beginning in Genesis and ran 
on to the end of the Book of Revelation. It was a plan 
that God in His great wisdom had laid long before the 
foundations of this earth were set up, and yet had not been 
seen clearly by the world or by the church. 

The teachers of theology in modern times had often ad- 
mitted that God had at many times been made to change 
His plans to defeat certain masterly strategic movements 
of Satan, the common enemy of God and man. But to 
Harvey it was very evident that this was not the case. 

Had they not read : “I am the Lord, I change no1.”f 
“ With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turn- 
ing.”| “ Known unto God are all His works from the 
beginning of the world. ”§ 

God alone is immovable. So much precious truth did 
Harvey find out that he told some of his friends of these 
things. 

Among his friends that he told of what was passing in 
his mind was Mr. Randell, who was also a close Bible 
student, and had for a long time been convinced in many 
ways that the Scriptures ha'd been misinterpreted. 

“ This is rather a strange coincidence,” said Mr. Ran- 
dell, “ that these thoughts should have come to both of us, 
of a different interpretation of the Scriptures than that has 
been taught in the past.” 

“ It does seem so,” answered Harvey, “ and it may be 

*Isa, 41: 10. tMal. 3: 6. JJames i: 17. §Acts 15: 18. 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 75 

that God is speaking to us, calling us to some special work 
for Him at this particular time.” 

“ I have long felt that we have not had the truth as it is 
in the Bible,” said Mr. Randell. “ We are told that there 
will be many things shut up to the time of the end. Christ 
as our prophet has said : ‘ Behold, I have foretold you all 
things.’ This must mean the history of the nations 
throughout the ages, as well as the history of the Church. 
We read that ‘ the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of 
prophecy.’* 

But,” said Harvey, “we are told that we cannot in- 
terpret prophecy.” 

“ I know our teachers say so,” answered Mr. Randell^ 
but Christ has commanded us to ‘ search the Scriptures,’ 
for. He says, ‘ They are they which testify of me.’ They 
testify of Him first as the Prophet of the world, second as 
the Great High Priest, and third as our coming King. 

“And if we search the Scriptures we are promised by 
Christ that the ‘ Holy Ghost shall teach us all -things and 
bring to our remembrance all things whatsoever he had 
said, while he was the prophet of the world.’ ” 

“ Then you do not think, when Christ said, ‘ I have 
foretold you all things’ that the ‘ all things’ were told by 
Christ in the three and a half years of His ministry on 
earth ? ” asked Harvey. 

“ Most certainly not ; all the minor prophets were but 
the mouthpiece of Christ as the Great Prophet.” 

“ I had never thought of it in that way,” said Harvey,. 
“ and yet I know that you must be right.” 

Harvey was overjoyed to know that for six months 
Albert Randell, Samuel Barnes, William Spencer, Frank 
Cowper, Miss May Melrose, Mary Campbell and Katy 
Anderson had been meeting together once a fortnight and 
held sweet fellowship with their God and each other. He 


*Rev, 19: 10. 


76 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


gladly joined this company of truth seekers, and, by his 
knowledge of the Bible and history helped them very 
much to get a clear understanding of God’s plan of the 
ages. 

They told others of their new found joys, and in the next 
six months four others — William Russel, Miss Anna 
Evans, Winnie Cameron and Verna Rodell — joined, 
making twelve in all. 

These were all true soldiers of the Cross, ready and will- 
ing to do God’s pleasure as far as they knew how. 

They had each and all entered into the study of God’s 
Word, from the standpoint of written prophecy found 
therein, and again rewritten in history. 

They began by seeking to know what was God’s plan in 
the beginning, and carried out and on through the ages. 
Earnestly they sought the Holy Spirit as their teacher. 

Their dail}^ prayer was : “Oh, Lord, lead us into the 
full light, into all truth as it is in Thy Word. As Zion’s 
watchmen,* fill us with power from on high, that what- 
ever truths Thou wilt show us we shall tell to others, and 
never hold our peace, day nor night. So manifest Thyself 
to us, oh Lord, that we cannot keep silence. Whatever 
stones there are in the highway that we and others are 
stumbling over, help us to gather them out of the way of 
the people, so that they shall not stumble or fall when fol- 
lowing the standard that shall be lifted up for thy chosen 
ones.* Make us thy watchmen on Zion’s towers. 
Choose us as Thy standard-bearers.” 

* At this stage of the world’s history these devoted ones 
were anxious to know the part that God would have them 
to take in the great conflict between right and wrong. 
That part could only be known by going carefully over the 
plan of God as written in His Word. 

Samuel Barnes, one of this society, was a young man 


*Isa. 62: 6-10. 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


77 


studying for the ministry. Up to this time he had not 
been filled with any special theology of any of the many 
sects and denominations. He was a very matter-of-fact 
young man, and would not take anything for granted, but 
he must have Scriptural proofs for all statements or beliefs. 

He wanted to know if, when God created Adam and 
Eve holy and happy, and placed them in the Garden of 
Eden, and they fell from that estate by the wiles of Satan, 
were God’s plans defeated by Satan ? 

“Because,” said he, “the common belief of the world 
is, that for the time, God was defeated.” 

Before answering Samuel’s question, Harvey asked an- 
other : 

“Was the shedding of Christ’s blood decided upon by 
God, after Adam fell, as an offset against Satan’s work.^” 

“ That has been the teaching of the church,” answered 
Samuel. 

“ Yes, we have been taught so ; but we are plainly told 
something else in Scripture. We read : ‘ Ye were not re- 
deemed by corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with 
the precious blood of Christ, as a Lamb without blemish 
or without spot : who verily was foreordained before the 
foundations of the world. Also in another Scripture, 

‘ The Lamb slain from the foundations of the world. ’f 

“ These Scriptures prove conclusively, that when Adam 
sinned God was not defeated nor made to change His 
plan. God not only knew of Adam’s fall, but we are 
plainly told that this chapter in the world’s and man’s his- 
tory was foreordained. 

“ My brother, God’s knowledge was such, that before 
the foundations of the world were laid, He had chosen 
you, Samuel Barnes, for the very work you are engaged 
in. ‘ He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundations 
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame 
before Him in love.’J 

*i Peter i: 18-20. tRev. 13: 8. tEph. i: 4. 


78 


WORDS OF COMFORT. 


“ The kingdom that you and I shall dwell in, in the 
Hereafter, was prepared for us before the foundations of 
the world were laid. ‘ Then shall the King say unto them 
on His right hand. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the 
world.’ 

§Matt. 25: 34. 



CHAPTER V. 




KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 

When last we saw Verna she was entering into the 
work of the Lord with a new zeal, especially with her 
Sabbath School class. This change came to her from the 
deep suffering she was passing through. All through this 
period she felt the presence of the Saviour dearer to her ; 
or, rather, through the expansion or widening out of her 
whole life. Christ had come to her in this suffering, giv- 
ing her more life, as He said, “ I am come that they plight 
have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”* 

Hard as it was to her, yet it was a higher life, and she 
was anxious to impart the same to others. 

In her endeavor to accomplish her desire for her class, 
she had a painful experience, and that from a source 
least expected. 

There were two young women in her class, Minnie 
Hall and Ethel Wood, with whom she had long striven in 
the hope that they would give themselves to the new 
life. Both were about twenty years of age, and both were 
thoughtless and worldly. Intellectually, they were far 
above the average, so that their influence for good or evil 
was the greater. 

Verna knew all this, and these facts deepened her inter- 
est in them. Had not God sent them to her, and put 
them under her care.^ 


•John ro: lO. 


8o 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


The sweetness of the new fellowship, love and life with 
her Saviour, that had come to her, was the incentive to 
bring these two under the influence of the blessed 
gospel. 

This step upward and onward was Verna’s by right, for 
the circumstances with which she had been surrounded 
were such that there was no one on the earth to whom she 
could go for the help and counsel she must have^ or for- 
ever go back on her Christian life. So when she had 
gone to her Saviour for comfort she had found still higher 
joy. 

Ethel Wood was more susceptible than Minnie Hall, 
but both were surprised at the earnestness of her appeal. 
It was with them as with Felix of old. As Verna “ reas- 
oned with them of righteousness, temperance and judgment 
to come, they trembled,”* and were almost persuaded to 
give up their old life and embrace the new. 

Verna called for them to go with her to church one Sab- 
bath morning when the Lord’s Supper was to be cele- 
brated. Just at this time both were deeply convicted of 
sin and felt their need of salvation. The ceremony was 
ver}/ solemn, and it spoke to them of an inner circle, with- 
in which, if they could but once gain admittance, they 
would be safe. 

Ethel said to Verna : “It seems to me as if Jesus were 
there with those at the altar.” 

Yes,” said Verna, “ He has said : ‘ Lo, I am with you 
always.’ ”t 

“ If I could feel all through my life that Jesus was near 
me,” said Ethel, “ as I think all those who surrounded the 
altar this morning should feel His presence, I would at 
once accept His offered mercy and join the church, and I 
believe I should be content and happy.” 

“ I suppose,” said Minnie, “ the real Christian contin- 


*Acts 24: 25. 


tMath. 28: 20. 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


8i 


ually feels the presence of the Lord as did the Psalmist, 
when he said : ‘ As the mountains are round about Jerusa- 
lem, so the Lord is round about His people henceforth, 
even forever.’ 

“ Yes,” said Verna, “ the more the Christian lives up to 
the light, the more he feels the nearness of the Lord, I 
rejoice exceedingly that you are opening your hearts to 
these blessed truths. I hope to see the time when you will 
have ‘ the peace of God which passeth all understanding,’ 
that state in which every day the way grows brighter as 
the years multiply. 

“ My dear girls, let me give you my own experience in 
this journey to the Better Land. I see the lights of the 
city, the New Jerusalem, sending up their gleam far above 
the horizon. I know that behind me there is darkness, the 
place of the damned. I have given my pledge to my God 
and Saviour that I will not turn back ; nay, that I will 
not even look back: but will look away from self and 
hopes of earthly joys; keeping my eyes fixed upon Jesus 
and the City of the Blessed, the lights of which I see in 
yonder sky. 

“ Every step I take makes up part of a day’s journey that 
brings me nearer to that city, and takes me farther away 
from the scenes of darkness that lie behind. 

“ Some day I shall reach that home of the soul, and 
shall receive my welcome home ; welcome from friends 
who have gone before, welcome from my Saviour. 

“Each day’s journey done I say to myself: ‘That is 
one day nearer the time when I shall wear my crown and 
inherit the mansion that He has gone to prepare for me.’ 

“My tears, my regrets, my dreadful fear that sometime 
I might be tempted to look back, will all be over then, for 
I shall have entered joys far transcending my dearest, 
sweetest earthly hopes.” 

*PS 125: 2. 

7 


82 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


These last words Verna said as if she were talking to 
herself, with a strange longing look in her sweet eyes, 
which were brimful of tears. 

Her pupils looked at her in astonishment. They could 
not understand what could be in her life that made her 
speak with such deep feeling, because she had always ap- 
peared happy and contented. So Ethel said to her : 

“ If you are ever in doubt or fear, or of turning back, of 
what use would it be for us to start out on this journey.^ 
We should most surely turn back.” 

Verna answered her and said: “You must not forget 
that it is through temptation that we are made strong, and 
thereby become ‘ overcomers.’ 

“ You remember that Christ when in the Garden said 
to His Father: ‘ If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me.’ Christ Himself was tempted to turn back from the 
suffering and work that His Father had for Him to do. 
He was thus tempted that He might succor you and I in 
any way that we may be tempted.” 

Verna went to the home of each of her pupils, and to- 
gether they knelt in prayer, asking that God would lead 
them into the full light. 

As Verna walked to her home that Sabbath afternoon 
she reproached herself for allowing her thoughts to dwell 
on what was behind. Her display of feeling had aroused 
the curiosity of her pupils, and had also called forth a 
pang in her own heart that would remain there for many 
days. She was not yet a conqueror. She was yet in life ; 
she was still human. 

There was not one treasure on earth that she had but 
she would gladly give if she could only see Harvey and 
speak to him once more. Human sympathy — and that 
from him — she must have, and that in the near future, or 
she would be overwhelmed. 

She said to herself: “ How will it all end.?” 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


83 - 


There was a notice given at the church that Commun- 
ion Sabbath of an entertainment to be given in the church 
on Thursday evening of the following week, in aid of the 
foreign mission fund. 

To Minnie and Ethel Verna had given tickets, suppos- 
ing she was doing that which would bring them under a 
still better influence, and draw them further away from 
their past associations. But alas ! if she had only known 
the awful consequences of that entertainment to Minnie, 
Ethel and perhaps many others, she would have done al- 
most anything rather than have taken them there. 

As they entered the church on the night of the entertain- 
ment they saw that the screens and paraphernalia of the 
show — for it could not be called anything else — had all 
been arranged around the platform and the altar that sur- 
rounded it. 

The minister, Mr. Hill, as master of the ceremonies, 
occupied the same place behind the desk as on the Sab- 
bath previous, when the Lord’s Supper was celebrated. 

The entertainment was called the “ Country School.” 

By the side of the minister sat the supposed teacher, 
wearing a Dolly Varden dress, and an apron over it of the 
same material, but of a larger pattern and in brighter col- 
ors. She had also something around her neck that re- 
sembled a necktie. As a type of country life, even the 
most primitive, it was much overdrawn, and out of place 
anywhere, much more so in a church. 

Seated in front of the teacher sat a motley group of boys 
and girls, all dressed with the same unfitness to any actual 
or natural reproduction of anything that ever could have 
been. 

Standing in front of the teacher was a boy about sixteen 
years old, who was supposed to be the bad boy of the 
school. He had on a short jacket that had the appearance 
of recent acquaintance with an ash-barrel; both elbows 


84 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


were sticking out through it. His trousers had once been 
of white duck, but now they were of piany shades. On 
one knee was a patch of white cotton cloth, while on the 
other was one of black. The whole seat of his trousers 
was covered with a bright tint of red flannel ; his face was 
covered with streaks of dirt, and his hair was as towsy as 
neglect and wind could make it. 

The appearance of the scene was not the worst ; the 
silliness of the questions asked by the teacher and answered 
by this bad boy and others, capped the climax. There 
was no part in the whole performance that was helpful 
and elevating to any mind ; but to those who were thought- 
ful and earnest in lifting fallen humanity out of their pres- 
ent, and into something better here and hereafter, as the 
life of Christ displayed, it was a heart rending scene. The 
whole lacked nothing in silliness; it was inane chatter; 
dulness robbed of respectability. 

When Verna had taken the scene in, she felt the full 
force of what it might mean to Minnie and Ethel. She 
tried to watch their faces without them seeing her. 

At once she saw the look of displeasure and contempt 
on their faces, which deepened when they saw the minis- 
ter and officiary laughing, as highly pleased with the per- 
formance. 

Verna watched them as they glanced from one face to 
another over that full house, looking to see if all were as 
pleased with the farce or light comedy as were the men on 
the altar platform. There were a few men and women who 
had the same expression on their faces as had Minnie and 
Ethel. 

Verna felt dizzy as she saw and heard all. What could 
she say to her pupils in excuse for it.? 

She had thought of asking the minister to call on them, 
but she now saw that that would be as great a mistake as 
this had proved. If he should attempt to make any excuse 


KNQCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


85 


h 

for this farce, it would be: they needed a certain sum 
which they had promised as a church for foreign missions, 
and they knew of no other way of raising it. 

Was not the minister the leader in the church’-s work.? 
Then why did he and the church stand right in her way, 
and bar the salvation of these two souls, as a great divid- 
ing mountain .? 

Verna read in their faces that a change had come into 
their lives, but she knew that the very church she was 
anxious to have them join now stood as a barrier between 
them and salvation. 

She pondered in her mind what she should say to them, 
as they left the church, and she prayed earnestly for words 
of wisdom that would be God’s message. But how could 
she Have a message for them when a great doubt had 
arisen in her own mind, that could not as yet find expres- 
sion in words. 

As they wended their way homeward Verna tried to in- 
terest them in other matters that would lead their thoughts 
away from that silly acting that would have discredited 
any “ dime show.” She hoped that they would forget it 
in time. They listened to Verna for a short time, but she 
knew that their thoughts were elsewhere. 

At last Ethel said to Verna, in a tone of deep displeas- 
ure : 

‘‘ Some other time we will talk of the things you are 
now speaking of. I want to know if you think the mis- 
sionaries who receive the money that was collected at that 
meeting would act out that farce before the heathen any- 
where, much less around the altar of their own church 
that had been dedicated to the service of the Lord ? ” 

The question was not unexpected, yet when it came she 
had no answer. 

If she said, “ No, I don’t think they would,” then she 
knew that the next question would be, “ Why did Mr. 


86 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


Hill and the officers of your church allow it?” As these 
thoughts were passing through her mind, she was uncon- 
cious of the lapse of time. 

“Miss Rodell, we are waiting for your answer,” said 
Minnie. 

There was but one answer she could give, and that was 
the one she did not wish to give : — 

“ No, I don’t think they would.” 

“ Then why enact it before us and other unsaved ones? 
Are not our souls of as much value as the souls of the 
heathen ? ” 

To this question Verna gave no answer. 

Ethel, seeing that Verna did not want to give an answer 
to that question, asked her, “Are the missionaries more 
consecrated than the ministers and the churches?” 

“ Possibly, the majority of them are,” Verna answered. 

“ Is this mixture of consecrated churches and conse- 
crated people with the ridiculous, new or old?” 

“ It certainly was not in the early church,” said Verna. 

“ Then is this church as we see it, and this minister and 
people, the best you have to offer us as guides and com- 
panions through life? Because if they are, I will not join 
any such silly social club as a home rest for my soul, even 
for this life,” said Ethel. 

“ Neither will I,” said Minnie. 

“ The Christians are told to take Christ as their ex- 
ample,” answered Verna. And yet she was so much per- 
plexed she scarcely knew what she was saying. 

“ We would be quite willing to take Him as our ex- 
ample, but to enroll ourselves with that church would cer- 
tainly take away all the good imparted to us. Miss Rodell,” 
said Ethel, assuming a serious tone, “ our lives have hith- 
erto been too far from righteousness ever to link ourselves 
with any organization or any people unless there is com- 
plete consecration to everything that is pure and good ; 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


^^7 

for it makes me tremble to think of our deep conviction, 
and the dawning hope of sins forgiven, and a home at last 
in heaven, when I contemplate the half-way state between 
heaven and hell 1 see those people in. It must be one 
thing or another for us, — life in all its fulness, or a going 
back to our old life, that will lead down to eternal death ” 
“ O; I wish we could have died when that moment of 
peace came to us that Sabbath morning, as we watched 
those people at the altar of the church,” said Minnie. 

“ Miss Rodell,” said Ethel, is there such a thing as 
embracing the salvation of Jesus, and following Him 
alone, outside of any church organization.^” 

“ Most certainly,” said Verna. We know that there 
were times, when the prophets of the Lord and other good 
men, stood almost alone for righteousness, when there was 
no visible church on earth. The great Plan of Salvation 
of God and His Christ — restitution for you and me by 
another; restoration to us of Paradise through the merits 
of Christ — has not changed, will never change. 

‘‘ The church and minister may forsake the narrow way 
that leads to Eternal Life, but that narrow path still re- 
mains open all the way from earth to heaven, for all who 
will enter. W hile I admit there may be many traps for us to 
fall into, and thorns and briars to prick us by the way, and 
few of our associates traveling our way, yet this salvation 
is by Grace, and we are plainly told that ‘ where sin 
abounded, Grace did much more abound.’* He will not 
forsake us if we are in earnest in seeking Him, for it is by 
‘ His Grace we are saved,’ whether the way for us be 
stormy or smooth. To forsake us would leave himself 
desolate.” v 

Thus teacher and pupils had a great uncertainty thrust 
upon them as they tried to see their way through the false 
lights. 


*Rom. 5: 20. 


KNOCKING AT A BARRED DOOR. 


As Verna said good night to them both, it was with the 
deepest concern for their spiritual welfare. So she said 
to them, “ Let us all be very earnest at the throne of 
Grace over this matter, until we meet next Sabbath.'’ 

As Verna looked back over the history of her pupils 
since she had taken the class, she realized that, for the 
most part, the influence of the church through its socials, 
had always been against the spiritual interests of her 
pupils. She remembered how near she had brought two 
other girls to accept salvation, when another of these en- 
tertainments had almost driven them back into the world 
again. She remembered that she had spoken to the min- 
ister about it, and he had made light of it, saying, “Well, 
we need the money.” She had not forgotten how he had 
looked at her when she said to him, “ Yes, but I want the 
souls of my class for Jesus.” - 

Thus her new joy that she had found in her Savior had 
been turned to sorrow, a sorrow she feared would remain. 

The same people could give money without these com- 
edies. If her particular church or denomination were at 
fault in this matter, so were others, since it has become 
the popular method, in most of the churches, for raising 
large sums of money. Yet she was at a loss to know how 
it had become so universal in the churches, when it was 
so much against the working of the spirit of God within 
the souls of the unsaved. 

Verna wondered to whom she could go for help in this 
matter. She was sure that it was useless to go to any 
of the clergy, for they had instituted or permitted this 
movement in the churches, which in either case made 
them responsible. She as well as many others were soon 
to awaken to a sad state of matter& within the church at 
large. 


CHAPTER VI. 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 

We will now return to the little party who were seeking 
for truth on this and other subjects which were troubling 
Verna so much. 

If the Christians are perplexed and in doubt as to their 
standing in this matter, it certainly implies that they must 
be astray on some other subjects leading up to this chap- 
ter of the church’s history ; because if full light on the 
history of the church were shown, revealing this growing 
formality, the true consecrated follower of Christ would 
not be in doubt as to the reason of its existing within the 
church, imperilling the very Gospel of Jesus Christ. All 
must be in God’s plan, or the Scripture cannot be true: 
“ Known unto God are all His works, from the beginning 
of the world.”* 

These very works — God’s plan throughout the ages — 
were what this little company were seeking so diligently 
to know and understand. 

Two weeks had again been numbered with the past, 
bringing in their night of meeting. 

The subject chosen was “ God’s Promise to Abraham 
and His Seed.” 

The opening remarks were given by Anna Evans. 

In substance, she said : “ In four hundred years after 
the flood God called Abraham from among the sons of 


‘Acts 15: 18. 


90 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


Noah for a particular work and mission. In calling Abra- 
ham God remembered His promise to Adam, although 
Adam had been dead many centuries. The hope of the 
human race was now centred in Abraham and his seed, 
and great need there was of some hope, for man and 
Satan had met the Lord in battle, resulting in His sending 
the flood that so nearly swept them all into darkness. 
They had been taught a terrible lesson of the power of 
the Lord. Yet how quickly this lesson was forgotten, for 
two branches out of the three that had come out of the Ark 
were again doing evil. 

“ God’s promise, that Abraham was to be the father of 
many nations, makes it vastly important that we find who 
those many nations are, and their mission in the great con- 
flict. 

“ Abraham had two sons, — Ishmael by Hagar, and Isaac 
by Sarah. I will’ give you what I have found respecting 
the history of Ishmael and his posterity. The circum- 
stances respecting the birth of Ishmael were peculiar, and 
had a marked eflect on the child and on the generations 
that followed. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, being childless, 
gave Hagar, her handmaid, to him to be his wife. When 
Hagar saw that she had conceived, her mistress was des- 
pised in her eyes. 

“ When Isaac was born Sarah drove Hagar and her son 
Ishmael out into the wilderness with but a piece of bread 
and a bottle of water, alone, among the wild beasts of the 
desert. Oh ! how this terrible injustice must have grown 
upon Hagar day by day, until it became a consuming fire 
within her. What was her sin? Why had she to be 
driven into the wilderness and forever forgotten? This 
fire which burned so fiercely within her was transmitted to 
her child ; so indelibly indeed was it impressed on him 
that it would be carried through all succeeding generations 
of his posterity. 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


9 ^ 


“ ‘ He shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. 
He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every 
man, and every man’s hand against him.’* 

“ The short history of Ishmael, ending with the above 
words, was that the Lord would see justice done to- 
Hagar. 

“ There was a beginning to this promise, but no end- 
ing ; while Isaac’s seed were earth dwellers, so would Ish- 
mael’s be. Then how long would the two posterities 
dwell on the earth? God’s promise to Abraham was at 
least ‘ to one thousand generations.’ Have these strange 
prophetic words been fulfilled? Does Ishmael’s seed 
dwell in the presence of Isaac’s children? Can we know 
that they do exist as a nation, as one of the nations of whom 
Abraham was to be the father ? VVe read that one hun- 
dred and fifty years after Esau took a wife of the posterity 
of Ishmael. t “ About fifty years after we know that a 
company of Ishmaelities bought Joseph and '• carried him 
down into Egypt.’! 

“ After six hundred and sixty years Gideon, the Judge 
of Israel, had to do with some Ishmaelites.§ As we fol- 
low down the ages one thousand three hundred years we 
find in Ps. 83 : 4-9, supposed to have been written in the 
reign of Josiah, King of Judah, ‘ that the Ishmaelites had 
confederated with Edom and Moab against Israel to cut 
them off as a nation. Thirteen centuries had come and 
gone, yet Isaac’s children had the knowledge that Ish- 
mael’s seed were dwelling in their presence, and that their 
hand was against them. The seed of the bondwoman and 
the seed of the free woman still knew each other ; knew 
that Abraham was the father of them both.’ 

“ Forty centuries is two-thirds of the time of the world’s 
age since Adam was created, and it is a long time to re- 
member a promise. As we in this century compute gen« 


*Gen. 16: 12. 


tGen. 28: 9. 


JGen. 37: 27. 


§Judges 8: 24. 


92 


SEARCHING P'OR TRUTH. 


■erations at thirty-three years, one hundred and twenty gen- 
erations have come and gone and we find the Ishmaelites 
still living in the presence of their brethren. But we know 
them by a new name ; yet they are known as descendants 
of Ishmael. 

“ So clear has been the history of Ishmael for four 
thousand years, and the existence of his seed as a nation, 
now known as the Arabs, there is no intelligent reader of 
sacred or profane history but believes that the Arabs are 
the true descendants of Abraham and Hagar. The name 
Arab means a sower of sedition, and is suggestive of 
a wild, roaming and unsettled man, a man in whom little 
confidence can be placed. 

“ At the great day of Pentecost at Jerusalem, Arabians 
were of the number who heard the new Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. 

“ The name of Arabia means a deserf; Ishmael had 
settled in Arabia, in the desert, and from henceforth 
would be known as Arabs, or Arabians. 

“ The location of a people has always a marked influ- 
ence on its history. A land with some peculiar natural 
features might be looked for as a home of Ishmael’s seed, 
if they were to be always known, and not to be mixed with 
other people to extinction. We would expect to see them 
placed in a country where they would not be overrun or 
carried away captive by the ruthless conqueror. Just such 
a land the Lord had pi'epared for Ishmael’s seed. Arabia 
had the above-named peculiar features. 

‘‘ The central part of Arabia is very fertile, where trav- 
ellers of late find many towns and villages, and even some 
can be ranked as cities ; they describe it as a beautiful 
country; while the nations have considered it a desert, 
with an oasis here and there. It is surrounded on all sides 
by a hot, arid desert, which is as a great wall of defence 
reared by nature’s God, that no invader will cross with an 


I 

SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 95 

army, where the risk is so great and little to tempt him. 
The vast space and hot climate of this home of the Ish- 
maelites is adverse to the movement of armies. 

“ The habits of the people are opposed to political 
union, which alone makes a race of men really formid- 
able. Once only in their history, under the excitement of 
religious frenzy, have the Arabs issued forth from the 
great peninsula on an errand of conquest. 

“ If their hand is against every man, it means that one 
tribe of their own race is against another tribe, one section 
against another. 

“ Who but God could foretell, could write the history 
of a nation for four thousand years in such few words ; so 
that no more was necessary.* One hundred and twen- 
ty generations have come and gone in the four thousand 
years; and this promise of God to Hagar and Abraham 
has been faithfully kept. Truly He is the ‘covenant keep- 
ing God to a thousand generations.’ This then is one 
nation ; but in Isaac was Abraham’s seed to be called, and 
therefore he, Isaac, was to be the Hther of many nations.” 

Mr. Randell at this time took part in the discussion. He 
was a man of good parts, a man diligent in business, with 
a clear head, a deep thinker and a fluent speaker. Al- 
though he was not an ordained preacher, yet he preached 
almost every Sunday in the year, but never had he taken 
any pay from any church for his services. 

•He had helped half a score of young men through their 
education, when studying for the ministry. He had start- 
ed several others in business. In all cases where it was 
possible for him to give a helping hand, it was given as if 
he esteemed it a great privilege to help all who came his 
way. 

His way of offering to help others was done so easily 
and naturally, that the receiver could in no way feel hurt, 

•Gen. i 6 : 10-12. Gen. 21: 18, 


94 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


for Mr. Randell so tendered his help that it appeared the 
most natural thing possible for the one to give and the oth- 
er to receive. 

Mr. Randell certainly obeyed the command, “ Take 
heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen by 
them : otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which 
is in Heaven.” 

“ I had not thought of Ishmaebs seed as part of the many 
nations promised to Abraham,” said Mr. Randell, “and 
yet I am glad that the subject has been brought up. As 
the thought that the full history of each tribe and people 
has been written in God’s Word in the far past, which 
stands to-day as history written in so few words, is iden- 
tical with what I have found respecting each of the twelve 
sons of Jacob. 

“ Back through the ages, three thousand five hundred 
years, we read the remarkable prophetic utterance of 
Jacob on his death bed respecting his twelve sons. This 
prophecy is the first indication that each tribe was des- 
tined by God for a particular mission, independent of 
eacdi other. 

“ This is a subject with many chapters, and the only 
way to get an intelligent understanding of it is to take up 
the history of one tribe at a time, and most surely the tribe 
of Judah comes first in importance. 

“ Judah, as one of the twelve tribes, had a mission of 
tremendous importance to perform for the rest of the tribes 
and the outside world. Their mission was ordained by 
God, and is wT'itten by the prophets. 

“ Respecting Judah, Jacob when dying, said: ‘The 
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from 
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall 
the gathering of the people be.’* 

“ This Scripture states very plainly that a king should 

*Gen. 49: 10. 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


95 


reign over Judah, and that a law-giver should be over the 
nation, when our Lord (Shiloh), would come. It also 
implies that there would be a division, a breaking up of 
the first kingdom of Israel as they settled in Canaan. 
Judah would be dwelling alone as a nation, while the 
other tribes at that time would have neither a king nor a 
law-giver. Nine centuries and a half after this remark- 
able prophecy of Jacob was uttered, the fact came to pass. 
Judah had a king ; Israel was in captivity. Fifty years 
before the ten tribes were carried away Hosea prophesied : 

‘ For the children of Israel shall abide many days without 
a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and 
without an image, and without an ephod and without tera- 
phim.’ 

“ There cannot be too much importance given to the 
division of the first kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms,” 
said Harvey ; “ so many class them as parts of a whole, — 
the offspring of Abraham. 

“In that remarkable blessing that Jacob gave to his 
twelve sons, he indicated that there would be a division of 
the tribes into two kingdoms. ‘ His new name,t Israel, § 
was to be given to Ephraim as the leader of the Ten 
Tribes who would go out from the rule of David’s sons, 
preparing the way for the time when Judah alone would 
be dwelling in Canaan, watching for the coming of the 
Messiah. 

“ So when the nation was divided into two kingdoms 
the tribes that were led by the tribe of Ephraim were called 
as a nation, ‘ The house of Israel,’ while the other was 
called ‘ The house of Judah.’ Many times we read in the 
Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel and of the 
kings of Judah. 

“ VVe read elsewhere in Scripture that Jacob’s new 


*Hos. 3: 4. 


tGen. 32: 28. 


tGen. 48: 16. 


96 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


name, Israel, was to be extended to the other tribes of 
Israel, but not to Judah.* 

“We are told that the ‘ Word of the Lord came to 
Ezekiel, saying, Son of man, there were two women the 
daughters of one woman; and they committed whoredom 
in Egypt ; and the names of them were Aholah, the elder, 
and Aholibah, her sister. Thus were their names: 
Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem, Aholibah. ’f 

“ Here we see that there were two women who were 
sisters, and that they counted as two nations as early as 
the time when they were in Egypt; that being thus des- 
tined to be two nations, each had a mission of its own. 

“Judah’s history was plainly portrayed in Jacob’s 
deathbed blessing, indicating that Shiloh would come 
from Judah, and that this tribe would be alone in Canaan 
when Shiloh (Christ) came. 

“ This one tribe was enough* to carry out the important 
mission: Judah must stay., must be in Ca^raan, in Jeru- 
salem, for the coming of Christ;. Christ must come; the 
Scriptures must be all fulfilled ; the great plan of Salvation 
must be worked out. The prophets foretold the birth, life 
and manner of the death of Jesus, of the place of his cruci- 
fixion, and by whom crucified. 

At other meetings when Verna was present, she sat 
silent, listening to all that was said by every one. Harvey 
had asked her several times to take part, and she had re- 
fused, but when the leader called for some one to continue 
the subject, she rose to her feet, and in a voice sweet with 
melody, said: “The mission of the elder sister, Aholah 
(Ephraim), was something very different, and included in 
it was the birthright blessing of Jacob. God inspired 
Jacob thus to speak, and this birthright was the most won- 
derful blessing ever given to any people on earth. 

“Ephraim’s seed were to become a multitude ot 

■*Ezek. 37: 16. tEzek. 23: 1-36. 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


97 


nations,* and in this great increase of people much terri- 
tory would be occupied by them. So we read in Jacob’s 
blessing, ‘ The blessing of thy father (Israel) has prevailed 
above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost 
bounds of the everlasting hills. ’t 

“ Two hundred years later Moses, in his last words to 
the tribes, gives the same wonderful blessing, but much 
enlarged, j 

“ The captivity of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, 
were each to have a very different outcome. Israel was 
carried away captive one hundred and thirty years before 
Judah, and their cities were filled up by a people whom 
the Lord called ‘ the worst of the heathen, and they shall 
possess their houses. ’§ 

“ One hundred and thirty years after the House of Israel 
went into captivity beyond the river, Judah was carried 
away to Babylon. 

“ The Babylonians burnt Jerusalem and the House of 
the Lord, and broke down the great wall that was around 
the city ; but the king of Babylon did not bring any of his 
own people to fill up the cities of Judah, as the king of 
Assyria filled up the land of Israel. The land of Judah 
was to be at rest and enjoy a continual Sabbath of rest for 
seventy years ; and was to remain a desert all that time.H 

“ But according to Jacob’s prophecy they must return ; 
a law-giver or a ruler must be there, for Shiloh had not 
yet come. 

“ So the Lord, by the prophets, told Judah that they 
should have a gracious return after the seventy years were 
ended. The land of Judah being left vacant while that of 
Israel was filled with strangers, shows very plainly that 
God had a purpose in thus making such a difference. ‘ For 
thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accom- 
plished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good 

*Gen. 48: 19. tGen. 49: 22-26. JDeut. 33: 13-17. §Ezek. 7: 24. llJer. 29; 4-11. 


8 


98 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


word to you, in causing you to return to this place.’ ‘ For 
I know the thoughts that I think toward you,’ saith the 
Lord, ‘ thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an 
expected end.’*' They had looked all through the centu- 
ries for Shiloh to come, and God would not disappoint 
them, nor the world. So this prophecy of a return after 
seventy years was fulfilled. Judah returned and remained 
in the land until Shiloh came, according to that wonderful 
prophetic vision of Jacob seventeen hundred years before. 
Strange that when that announcemeni- was made not one 
of the families of the tribes of Israel had a home or a foot- 
hold in any land or country, still less a king or lawgiver.” 

As Verna sat down her face was radiant with smiles and 
emotion. Every wmrd that she said was listened to with 
the most marked attention by everyone. This fact had 
helped her, and yet it had embarrassed her. She had 
forced herself to speak, because she was anxious to give to 
others what she had read of God’s wonderful plan for the 
world in His Word. 

Mr. Randell quickly rose again and said : 

“In the past we have been taught that the people 
known as the Samaritans in the days of Christ and also at 
this time are a mixed race, composed of the remnants of 
Israel and those nations that the king of Assyria placed in 
their cities. But the Lord sa}s there are none of Israel 
there. ‘ Thus saith the Lord, I will utterly take them 
away, none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, 
nor any of theirs ; neither shall thefe be any wailing for 
them.’t 

“ There would be none left to wail for those that had 
been taken away. 

“ ‘ For the vision is touching the whole multitude there- 
of, which shall not return. 

“ ‘Thus saith the Lord, as a shepherd taketh out of the 


*Jer. 29: 4-11. 


tEzek. 7: II. 


tEzek. 7: 11-14. 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


99 

mouth of a lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the 
children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria.'* 

‘•Now when the Lord says in such strange pointed 
words that every one of the House of Israel should be 
taken away and that none of them should return, which 
will we believe, God’s Word or man’s teaching? When 
His word is so emphatic, there must have been a particu- 
lar purpose in it. 

“ The teaching of the Jews that some of the Ten Tribes 
came with them into Judea from Samaria on their return 
from their captivity, is also proved false by these passages 
of Scripture. This teaching is also contradicted by Ezra. 
Therefore now we can look back over the past and know 
that the terrible calamity of the Ten Tribes carried into 
captivity by such a cruel foe and so far away, ‘ was touch- 
ing the whole multitude thereof ;’ that all were in the land 
of Assyria as captives. 

“ It is therefore quite certain that the Jews of to-day are 
alone the descendants of the remnant of Judah who were 
captives in Babylon, who came back from the captivity to 
Canaan and dwelt in the land of Palestine when Christ 
was on the earth. Shortly after the resurrection of our 
Lord the dispersion of the Jews took place, and for the 
eighteen centuries that have come and gone the Jews, who 
are the tribe of Judah, have not been a nation. A noted 
Rabbi while praying at the dedication of a Jewish syna- 
gogue in the year 1894, said : ‘ Lord, we thank Thee for 
Thy mercies to us as a people, although we are not yet 
known as a nation.’ 

“ Out of Jacob (Judah) shall come He (Christ) that 
shall have dominion.! ‘ For from the top of the rocks I 
see Him, and from the hills I behold Him ; lo ! the people 
shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the na- 
tions. ’J In other \yords, they were to be seen, they were 

*Amos 3: 12. iNum. 23: 9. tNum. 24: 19. 

LofC. 


lOO 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


to be known ; they would not inter-marry with others, but 
should dwell alone and yet never be reckoned as a nation, 
but scattered as we see them this day. 

“We have other Scriptures that go to prove that the 
tribe of Judah (the Jews) would be scattered after Christ 
was crucified. 

“ ‘ Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against 
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts ; smite 
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.’* 

“ Thus we see the tribe of Judah scattered into every 
land, and among every people, over the face of the whole 
earth, for the long period of nearly nineteen centuries. 

“That strange, prophetic prayer of Moses, uttered fif- 
teen centuries before the Jews were scattered, comes up 
before us : ‘ And this is the blessing of Judah : Hear, 
Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people : 
let his hands be sufficient for him f and be Thou a help to 
him from his enemies. ’f If it were not for the help given 
to them by God, according to the prayer of Moses, and 
the prayer of Judah themselves, they would long ago have 
been scattered and lost. Their ‘ hands would not have 
been sufficient for them,’ — their shrewdness in doing busi- 
ness in all climes, and in the most straitened circumstance 
is very marked. 

“ No other characteristic within the power of God to 
give, could have sustained them as well as this one. As 
they gathered in abundance, their enemies became envious 
of them, robbing them of their property, not as much for 
enmity as for greed on the part of the robbers, which was 
criminal, while the gathering of property by the Jews, was 
the work of their hands. 

“ For this their shrewdness the Jews have been perse- 
cuted, and not for the crucifixion of Christ. This perse- 
cution was necessary to keep them a separate people. 

*Zech. 13: 7. tDeut. 33: 7. 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


lOI 


* Let their hands be sufficient for them,’ so that their ene- 
mies could not overcome them. So we see them dwell- 
ing alone and not reckoned among the nations. This 
prayer of Moses ascended to God for the tribe of Judah 
fifteen centuries before Christ came ; and since the disper- 
sion of Judah, the same prayer has gone up to the God of 
Israel from Judah herself, from ‘ every clime and nation,’ 
for over eighteen centuries. 

“ Read the prayers and compare : 

“ ‘ Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto 
his people.’ 

“ ‘ Gather us unto our own land and people, and let it 
be in this our day.’ 

“This last prayer may be read in the prayer books of 
the Jews throughout the world to-day. ‘ How marvelous 
are thy works, O Lord.’ 

“ In the two prophecies of Jacob and Moses, just quot- 
ed, concerning the tribe of Judah, there is a plain state- 
ment that yudah would crucify Christ., and that act 
would cause them to be scattered over the world. For 
seventeen centuries it has been the custom of the Jews who 
live near Jerusalem, to gather in a certain place by the 
walls of the city to weep and pray that God would gather 
them back to the land of their fathers. 

“ As Christ looked dowm over the eighteen centuries just 
past and saw the persecution these people would have to 
endure, no wonder in pity He said : ‘ Inasmuch as ye did 
it not to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it 
not to me.’* 

“ It appears that we have been disappointed in not hav- 
ing our usual closing address delivered to-night,” said Mr. 
Randell, “ but we have not traced out the future history of 
the tribe of Judah, so I propose that we continue the study 
of this subject at our next meeting ; and also ask that Miss 


*Malh. 25: 45. 


102 


SEARCHING FOR TRUTH. 


Rodell give the closing address, and if possible bring out 
some of the principal reasons why the tribe of Judah have 
taken this course, and the ends to be accomplished.” 

To this all agreed, and the chairman asked Verna if she 
would give a short address at next meeting, to which she 
consented. 



CHAPTER VII. 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. 

A sweet fellowship was springing up between the mem- 
bers of this little gathering, which they had not known be- 
fore, and which came from the teaching of the Spirit. 
The tie that was binding them together was love and fel- 
lowship. Every one of them felt that God was answering 
their prayers, in that the great truths of the Scriptures 
were being opened up to them as never before. ‘ They 
were beginning to realize that to study for, themselves, was 
the only way open to them. Little information had they 
ever received from any other source on these subjects that 
were becoming so interesting to them. From what they 
had already found, they knew there was very much yet to 
learn. 

Harvey devoted much time in prayer to God, that the 
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, would bring all 
things to their remembrance according to the promise of 
Christ.* The “all things,” the “whatsoever I have said 
unto you,” was not the teaching of Christ in His short 
ministry on earth, but was the great plan of God for the 
people and the nations of the earth, that Harvey and oth- 
ers were so anxious to trace out, and that which Christ, as 
the Great Prophet of the world, had spoken to His people 
throughout the ages. 

All the prophets of the centuries past were but minor 


•John 14: 26. 


104 VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFUENESS. 

ones, the mouthpiece of Christ, speaking the words that 
their Leader had told them to speak. 

These watchmen saw that the battle between right and 
wrong was still on, waged with as much bitterness as ever 
by the hosts of evil. Meanwhile the armies of the Lord 
on earth were weakening in the conflict, and calling in 
their outposts. 

This sad fact is quite manifest, for the wicked are more 
and more riding upon the high places of the earth.* The 
rich are getting richer, the poor poorer; the wisdom and 
energy of the nations are spent in obtaining by force 
dominion and power. Truly it has been said: “When 
the wicked beareth rule, the people shall mourn.”! 

The hoped-for change, when all wrongs would be 
righted, which the faithful of God have lived and hoped 
for, is not indicated by a hand on the dial of any theolog- 
ical chart of to-day. But instead, the waves of righteous- 
ness for the present are being swept backwards by the 
forces of evil. 

These searchers after truth fully believed the words of 
Christ as the Great Prophet when He said: “Behold I 
have foretold you all things.” 

Then wonder not that they were seeking to know and 
read the chapter in the history of the Church and in the 
world that is now being written, in line with the prophetic 
story of the Great Prophet. 

When the next night of meeting had come, and when 
the opening services were over, Miss Cameron rose and 
said: “Mr. Randell, at our last gathering you stated that 
the future history of the tribe of Judah had not been 
spoken of. The Lord promised them a I'eturn to Canaan, 
after the seventy years of captivity were over, and as we 
have been told, they were to be in Canaan when Shiloh 
(Christ) came. After that when they had crucified the 

*Eph. 6: 12. 


tProv. 29: 2. 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. I 05 

Light and Hope of the world, they were to be scattered 
over all the world, as we see them to-day. Then we have 
been told that they will remain scattered until the most of 
them embrace the Gospel of Jesus whom their fathers 
slew. Have you, Mr. Randell, found any different end- 
ing of their strange history? 

“Yes,” said Mr. Randell, “ we are told that it should 
come to pass that ‘ The Lord will set His hand the second 
time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be 
left.’* Another Scripture says : * And the Lord shall in- 
herit Judah his portion of the Holy Land, and shall 
CHOOSE Jerusalem again. ’f ‘ And He said. Run, speak 
to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as 
towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle 
therein. ’I 

“ There are about 9,000,000 Jews in the world to-day, 
and in Russia alone there are about 5,000,000 out of the 
9,000,000; so that in that chapter we are told what part 
of the world the greater number of the Jews will come, 
from to the rebuilding of Jerusalem. 

“ ‘ Ho, ho ! come forth, and flee from the land of the 
north, saith the Lord : for I have spread you abroad as the 
four winds of Heaven, saith the Lord.’§ 

“ The whole chapter in which this verse is found bears 
on the subject of the second return of the tribe of Judah to 
Palestine. 

“ Jerusalem has been in the past the place, more than 
any other on earth, where the contending hosts of the 
Lord and Satan have met, and so it will be in the future. 
Satan has watched with keen eyes what was going on 
about Jerusalem, and we read of a long time when the 
city was to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles, until 
the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. But after this 
treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles the Lord 

*Isa, ii: II. tZech. 2: 12. $Zech. 2: 4, §Zech. 2:6; also Zech. i: 21. 


Io6 VERNA TEACHES OF GOd’s FAITHFULNESS. 

promised a return of the tribe of Judah, and also that 
Jerusalem shall again be built. ‘ The holy city shall they 
tread down under foot forty and two months.’* (Forty- 
two months equal one thousand two hundred and sixty 
days — years.) The Turks came into possession of Jeru- 
salem A. D. 637, and in A. D. 643, Catiph Omer erected 
the present mosque on the site of the old temple. From 
that time to this the holy city has been literally trodden un- 
der foot by the Gentiles (heathen.) Beginning with 
A. D. 637, the one thousand two hundred and sixty years 
terminated in 1897-8. It may be considered as a certainty 
that the time is near when the holy city will be delivered 
out of the hands of the Turks. 

“ When Moses prayed, ‘ Hear Lord the voice of Judah 
and bring him unto his people,’ he saw in a vision the dark 
future of trouble before Judah, or he could not have asked 
for that blessing. At this time that prayer is being an- 
swered, Judah is returning to Jerusalem and Judea at the 
rate of about ten thousand a year, according to authentic 
reports. Their desire is to go back and rebuild Jerusa- 
lem. Long centuries they have watched for the opening, 
and as their life and property is made safe for them, they 
will return in still greater numbers. ”t 

“I have talked to many of these people,” said Harvey, 
“ and I know that they still have the undying hope of an 
answer to their prayer, of a call from their God to return 
to Jerusalem, to rebuild it, a hope (secret it may be) of 
yet seeing their promised King. The glories of His King- 
dom have been a secret fountain of life to them, which is 
even now impelling them back to the beloved land of their 
fathers, as a first beginning of greater things in the near 
future. 

“ From the time the Turks first held possession in Pal- 
estine until recently, they had a law which permitted no 


*Rev. 


tZech. i: 16-17. 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. lO/ 

Jew to remain in the land of their fathers for more than 
three months. Some years ago this law was repealed, and 
a hundred thousand Jews have since returned to the Holy 
Land. There is a society organized, with branches 
everywhere, among the Jews, to buy the whole of Pal- 
estine from the Sultan, and raise up a Jewish state with 
Jewish laws. 

“ These orthodox Jews know that Canaan must be in 
their possession before their long looked-for Messiah can 
come. All things must be in readiness for His coming, 
according to prophecy. Great changes will take place 
when the Jews return. The hope of one hundred and 
twenty-one generations will then be realized, and not till 
then. 

“ This society claims that in one year after they have 
possession, one million Jews will have returned to Pales- 
tine.” 

May Melrose, who had not taken any part up to this 
time, and of whom we shall have more to say, said : 
“ There is abundant evidence in Scripture to show that 
Judah would take this course. The manner of Christ’s 
coming, life, death and resurrection has been clearly writ- 
ten and fulfilled. All of which goes to prove, without a 
doubt, that for Judah, a pathway was carved out, with 
unscalable rocks on the right hand and on the left ; a defile 
so narrow that they could not turn back — they must march 
to its end. A course thus laid out by God must be fol- 
lowed to the end. 

“ My faith enables me to look through the future years, 
yet not far in the distance, and see Judah in part, and also 
a few of Israel returned to Jerusalem and Palestine. The 
hope of fifty generations is at last being realized ; the 
numberless secret and public prayers of those generations 
are being answered, prayers which have been so often 
wrung from sorrowful hearts, which have learned to live 


loS VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. 

among the surroundings of utter despair. Back to the 
Land of Promise, the land of their fathers, the land of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they are coming, separated, 
scattered, peeled, scorned and homeless no more.” 

The chairman wished to know if any one had any ques- 
tions to ask. 

Samuel Barnes asked, “What purpose could God have 
in dispersing Judah over the world and keeping them 
scattered so long?” 

“ I will wait,” said the leader, “until Miss Rodell gives 
her address before answering that question, as an answer 
should be given to it by her.” 

As Verna rose to speak, she asked the Lord to enable 
her so io speak that His name might be glorified and her 
comrades benefitted. Most surely that prayer was an- 
swered, for her words were filled with sound reasoning 
and wisdom. Her face beamed with happiness from the 
fact that she was present in the same room with Harvey. 

“Judah,” began Verna, “ is held up before the whole 
world as the people who crucified Christ. As men look 
upon it, they see nothing but the one fact — the fathers cru- 
cified Him, and the children confirm the act by still 
rejecting Christ. All people have derided them from the 
time of Calvary to this hour ; yet no Salvation could have 
come to man without Christ’s life being sacrificed. The 
fact of their holding out against all overtures, still clinging 
to the Covenant of Works, has done much to preach this 
Gospel of the New Covenant. The Covenant of Grace 
is like the positive in electricity which attracts the nega- 
tive, the Covenant of Works. Each is inoperative with- 
out the other. When a person receives the Covenant of 
Grace he is attracted to go another way, and he strives to 
keep the Covenant of Works also. The first and only 
way, was as a first way, that must be held up as the way 
that has failed^ the way that will always fail; the way 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. IO9 

that the human heart will most naturally take, because 
having lost a Paradise by evil works, it will try to regain 
it again by good works, while in its natural state. There- 
fore it was the wisdom of God to leave in blindness this 
one tribe, to show forth human nature, to make it a van- 
tage ground, which being once gained was not to be lost, 
a light to shine over all the world, to show that Christ was 
crucified by sin, yet to wash away sin ; that all men are 
sinners and must come back to God for their redemption, 
and seek protection from Him alone. 

“ Age after age had come and gone, until four thousand 
years had been spent, in showing man his wickedness. 
Then came the final act in the failure of man to see, to 
know, to appreciate the work of the Great Builder of a 
better covenant, even to the taking of His life, because 
they saw that His avowed purpose was to take this same 
Covenant of Works from them and substitute something 
else in its place. They said, ‘We will not have this man 
to reign over us.’ He would therefore give Judah up^ 
until Israel had brought forth children and filled up the earth 
with standard bearers of the better covenant.! God would 
let them cling to this Covenant of Works until man could 
see his position. This evil must cure itself by itself. 
The better covenant would be established in spite of the 
wrath of man; yea, this very act of man’s rejection, and 
his crucifixion of the Mediator of the New Covenant 
would forever be a standing monument of its excellency 
above the old. It was and is necessary to keep this Cov- 
enant of Works before the gaze of the world, because man 
forgets. From the time of the giving of the law of works 
through Moses on Mount Sinai until King Josiah’s time, 
when Hilkiah, the High Priest, found the book of the Law 
in the House of the Lord, was a period of eight hundred 
and fifty years. Although this law had been given under 

*Micah 5: 3. tHeb. 8: 13, also 12: 24. 


I lo VERNA TEACHES OF GOd’s FAITHFULNESS. 

such tremendous manifestations of God’s power, it had 
been forgotten and left in a dark corner of the house of the 
Lord, so that even Hilkiah, the High Priest, did not know 
of its existence.* 

“ Three hundred years after the whole Church had ac- 
knowledged Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, the 
Mediator of the New Covenant, the priesthood kept the 
Bible away from the people ; so that between the years 
500 and 1500 A. D'., or what was known as the * Dark 
Ages,’ the Bible was unknown to the common people, and 
the law of the Church was substituted by man as the rule 
,of life. The Bible at that time was in a language un- 
known to the common people, and the reading of it was 
prohibited by both Church and State. Translators of the 
Bible were punished with death. 

“And now again after a short lapse of four hundred 
years from the ‘ Dark Ages ’ down to the present day, the 
world having seen the Holy Spirit poured out on Israel, 
we have the ‘ higher criticism ’ of the Bible (so-called by 
the critics themselves), which says that Jesus was only a 
man ; that we must not take all that is said in the Bible as 
literal. They say that the greater part of the Bible is of 
no use whatever to man in this day. These servants of 
the evil one would take every prop from under the feet of 
Christians, and would even do worse than the Roman 
Catholic Church did in the ‘ Dark Ages.’ Luther and his 
followers had the Bible to fall back upon when they sought 
for truth and light ; but these infidel skeptics would take 
away the Word of God itself, and leave us without any 
guide. They would destroy the highway that has been 
opened and established between earth and heaven. 

, “ But through all these centuries Judah has given forth 

no uncertain sound. Even when darkness came over the 
whole earth the Hebrews still held aloft the banner of one 


*2 Kings 22: 10-14. 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. I I I 

God to be worshipped. No persecution, however bitter, 
no rage of their enemies made them falter in their worship 
of the God of Israel. 

‘‘ This Covenant of Works which they have received 
from their- God has been a link from out the past, con- 
necting it with each generation as it comes and goes. 
They have carried the heavy end of the cross, while the 
Christians have carried the lighter end. Judah has been 
compelled to lead, while Christians have only followed. 

“ Then should we be surprised that God kept one tribe 
out of the children of Israel to witness ‘for Him for two 
thousand years God having established thus far a knowl- 
edge of Himself, a reverence and fear of His judgments 
against sin, as the Covenant-keeping God, would He 
leave Himself without a witness other than His Word, a- 
Book.? No! He would leave a living witness of all 
He had done ; He would scatter into every clime, every 
nation, this tribe as His witnesses until His better Cov- 
enant of Grace had been brought forth by the other 
tribes.* 

“ ‘ Ye are my ^witnesses saith the Lord, and my servant 
whom I have chosen : that ye may know and believe me, 
and understand that I am he : before me there was no 
God formed, neither shall there be after me.’J 

“ God in His great wisdom would hold before the 
world this vantage ground, which had been so hard to 
get possession of through the six thousand years that 
Adam’s seed have existed. To make it still more prom- 
inent, more monumental of man’s folly and rebellion, 
Christ’s own tribe was chosen to reject the King of Glory, 
and that tribe has lived through the centuries trying to re- 
gain Paradise by the law of works. 

“ What a spectacle the great American Republic would 
present before the world if it should go back to the old 

tisa. 43: 10. 


*Micah 5; 3. 


I 12 VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. 

days of despotism, and centre the power of government in 
one man and his minions, after having shown the world 
that the government should be ‘ of the people, by the peo- 
ple, and for the people.?’ Where would be the boasted 
freedom gained by the Pilgrim Fathers, and offered to the 
millions of oppressed who have fled to our shores for pro- 
tection from both Church and State? It would be giving 
up vantage ground that it has taken four hundred years to 
achieve, which if lost, might never be regained. Could 
one imagine the British Empire giving up her vantage 
ground gained in the last five centuries, in securing and 
holding the gates of her enemies, such as Gibraltar, or 
Aden, and in establishing the greatest free trade Empire 
the world has ever seen? Would we expect the Germans 
to disband their army while still surrounded by enemies? 
Or the French nation to recall the Bourbons? Or the Hol- 
landers to open their dykes? When we see the two na- 
tions first named giving up the points which alone make 
them the greatest and grandest nations of the world ; 
when we see the last two named giving up the very bul- 
warks of their national strength ; then, to speak as a man 
would speak and yet not to compare man with God, we 
would expect God to give up this living witnessing of 
Himself by this tribe in His Covenant of Works. 
God would bridge over just such a chasm by a structure, 
making men the builders, unknown to themselves, for 
they 'would not have crucified their Kin^-^ nor 'would 
they still reject Hun if they knew Him.* Every time 
we meet a Hebrew is it not a sermon, telling us of the 
call of Abraham, the going down into Egypt, the mira- 
cles there, the crossing of the Red Sea, the cloudy pillar 
by day and the pillar of fire by night, the eating of angels’ 
food, the thunders of Mount Sinai, the tables of stone 
whereon our own moral law and that of Judah was writ- 

*1 Cor. 2: 8. 


■i 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOd’s FAITHFULNESS. II3 

ten, of Moses the law-giver, of the crossing of Jordan, and 
many other ways God showed His power and sovereign 
righteousness, love and mercy? Yea, truly, every Jew is 
a preacher, a witness of God as the only God. Yet the 
close of their great sermon is the bright golden link that 
unites the far past with the present, the link that joins the 
old with the new. The rise and fall, the rising again of 
that one glorious Star of Hope, that alone has illumined 
the world from the fall until now, — the shedding of the 
blood of Christ, a fountain opened in which sinners might 
wash and be forever clean. This is the sermon the Jews 
have preached, this is the sermon they will preach until 
Christ comes again. 

“ When we consider the past with the forces of good 
and evil, as they now exist, we are forced into the belief 
that these living witnesses have been one of the strongest 
chains that have bounu the Church and the world to the 
Rock of Ages; and without which man would have drift- 
ed into an ocean without a shore, where in eternal night 
the wildest storms would forever raise their mighty waters 
into white-capped waves, as the elements strove one with 
another. Yet the world has persecuted Judah ; and still 
more strange is it that that very persecution was the means 
of their preservation. They cried to God in their distress, 
and by this persecution and their cry for help going up 
continuall} they have always remembered their God and 
His works. Clearly, Judah’s mission was to carry the 
Covenant of Works until the Covenant of Grace was 
preached in every part of the earth by the House of Israel.* 
The two covenants must be held up before the world to 
show the contrast and the connecting link between the- 
two, that it might always be said, here is Judah of whom 
our Lord came. This Bible was theirs, is ours. 

“ Great changes have taken place over this earth within 

*Micah 5: 3. 

9 


1 14 VERNA TEACHES OF GOd’s FAITHFULNESS. 

the last two thousand years. Mighty potentates have risen 
and caused rivers of human gore to flow into mother 
earth, in carrying out their desire to create empires that 
would encircle the earth, wiiich at this time exist only in 
history. Vast continents have been discovered and' peo- 
pled by a predominant race of men. Many a once mighty 
people have passed from the earth, and left not a man to 
testify of his forefathers. Remains of towns and cities 
■liave been found, ^ that give no evidence of whom the build- 
ers were. Languages have so changed that it is hard for 
scholars to keep pace with the constant varying of speech. 

“ How quickly the past fades from us, especially the 
past that we look at from afar ! Men are so eager to gaze 
into the future, to unveil what lies before, that the past is 
forgotten, thereby breaking the continuous chain and los- 
ing the old pathway, which must be part of the new. 

“ And yet this tribe of Judah, without an abiding place 
anywhere, has survived all these mighty changes, and to- 
day numbers about nine millions. Nations have persecut- 
ed them, oppressed them, slain them with the sword by 
thousands, burnt them at the stake, robbed and stripped 
them of everything, and they have been banished from 
every nation. In some of their desperate straits they have 
agreed to die by each other’s hands rather than fall into the 
hands of their enemies.* While the descendants of the 
men who cried ‘crucify Him’ remained, nothing could 
hide the fact that Christ had lived, died, and risen again. 
Had they embraced the Gospel, all would have been lost ; 
Satan’s onslaught must be met with living witnesses. 
The folly and pride of humanity, the rage of the human 
heart and its diabolical ingenuity and strategy, find here an 
adarriantine wall which the allied forces of earth and hell 
-have in vain tried to demolish. 

“ When Judah was carried into Babylon for their idol- 


*Josephus, History of the city of Masada. 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOd’s FAITHFULNESS. I I 

atry, they suffered such hardships at the hands of their cap- 
tors that since that time no Jew has worshipped any idol ; 
he has worshipped the God of Israel only. Judah’s teach- 
ing was of such a terrible nature that they could not for- 
get to tell their children. The very assaults of the enemy 
were a constant reminder of the past. They had the prom- 
ise of a return to Canaan, and many generations of prayer 
for this hoped-for result have intensified the past and in- 
creased the hopes for the future. 

The majesty of the argument embodied in this pillar 
of the edifice He had reared, alone is worthy of the Infin- 
ite Author. It has in the past accomplished His purpose 
as no other could, and great the purpose it will yet be 
made to serve. Towering up through the ages it has 
flashed its calcium light for man, when all else was iii dark- 
ness. Saint and sinner, earth and hell, man and devil 
have assailed it, stormed it with shot and shell, still it has 
outlived all empires, survived all human changes; yea, it 
will live as a living witness until Chiist comes again. 

While Judah is anxious to coiTie to the light, the time 
when they shall see their King in His beauty and the 
beauty of His kingdom, yet for eighteen hundred years 
they have been carrying their cross in all its degradation, 
without any joy, down to the graves of many generations, 
a hopeless hope, each man giving it up only with his 
breath. 

“ Xo parallel have we in all history of such tender, won- 
<lerful fidelity to any object, as thus seen in the children of 
Judah, hoping and watching for the promised Messiah to 
come and restore all things to them. 

From one generation to another, from one hundred 
years to another hundred years, from one thousand years 
into another thousand, until this hoped for happiness has 
covered five thousand years of dead, buried hopes, and yet 
the present generation of orthodox Jews have brighter 


/ 

Il6 VERNA TEACHES OP' GOD’s FAITPIFUENESS. 

hopes of their coming King than any previous generation 
of the one hundred and twenty-one that are past and gone. 

“ This hope is still shedding its gleam of light over 
them as if from heaven’s lamps. How the fathers and 
mothers must have impressed the children with this won- 
derful hope ! 

“ For this faithful teaching and this mighty faith in God, 

He has promised to reward them with a double portion. 

‘ For your shame ye shall have double.; and for confusion 
they shall rejoice in their portion : therefore in their land 
they shall possess the double : everlasting joy shall be upon 
them.’* 

“ Surely in all this there is a lesson of fidelity to duty 
for us, fidelity to our God and Saviour, and to one an- 
other. Are we faithful to all that is good? Are we true 
to the sacred instincts of our natures? Then if so, God will 
reward our faith in Him, our devotion to every pledge, to 
every consecration vow.” 

As Verna finished with these words and sat down she 
sent one swift glance into Harvey’s eyes, while the least 
possible smile illumined her sad, earnest face. She ap- 
peared very happy at this time to all those present, and 
she herself could not understand why she felt so joyful, , 
when the past and future were so full of deep sorrow for 
her. 

Verna did not know that women always live in the 
present hour. To be in the same room with Harvey, to 
see his face, to hear him speak, to breathe the same air, 
was happiness to her for the time. She could forget the 
past, she could hope for the sometime, the somewhere, 
and live as if this hour was all there was of life. 

By that smile and look, by those words, Harvey knew 
she was learning a lesson of fidelity to God, as well as did 
the Jews. Well he knew by that glance that she was tell- 


*Isa. 6i: 7. 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. II7 

ing him in her secret way she was still true to him, would 
always be true. 

No one knew but Harvey why it was that she spoke 
with such a deep pathos in her voice. It was not a boast- 
ful joy that filled his soul wlien he learned in this way of 
her truth, but in it he learned a lesson of patience and 
consecration to all that was good, as well as comfort, and 
he blessed her for it. 

Verna’s address made a deep impression on all present. 
No such stirring words had been spoken at any of their 
previous meetings. 

No one felt this so much as did Harvey. He had 
listened to her words with wonder, that made God’s works 
in the world appear so glorious, so replete with infinite 
wisdom. In these new truths a great and sublime future 
work was opening up before Harvey that might fill up 
every void in this world to him and others. 

Then he said to himself that he could bear up under 
these trials if he only had Verna to help him, to sympa- 
thize with him, to encourage him when he needed cheer- 
ing words, when those spells of melancholy came over 
him. . 

Most men who had achieved great success in any work 
in the world have had happy homes. The cares and wor- 
ries of outside life were altogether laid aside in the place 
they called ‘‘ home, sweet home.” 

There they found relief from every care, and that relief 
gave rest; that rest that is so essential to men, that they 
may go out into .the world with fresh courage day by day, 
and determination to meet dilficulties with a patient spirit 
and a bold front, to accomplish all within the bounds ol 
possibility ; to fill up every void and to supply every need 
to others. 

But alas for Harvey ! At the threshold of his home of 
the past was where the great burden of his life had to be 


Il8 VERNA TEACHES OF GOd’s FAITHFULNESS. 


taken up. Instead of rest and confidence, coupled with 
love of heart to heart, he had to think over every word be- 
fore he spoke, weigh every action, so that he would not 
give offence. 

There are some people who have an idea that they are 
never in fault. They are satisfied that they have wisdom 
and goodness sufficient to carry them safely through the 
most trying ordeals, to bridge every chasm. If trouble 
arose, some one else was to blame ; they are not at fault. 
They think that to make overtures for peace is an acknowl- 
edgment of wrong. They know not that it is always the 
ones who are most deeplv wronged who take the first steps 
for peace and reconciliation. By their holding back, un- 
known to themselves, they are writing their own sentence 
—“Guilt}.” ' ‘ 

Since Harvey had met Verna he had moments of mel- 
ancholy from his past experience, and- so it must always 
be ; where we find our greatest joys, there we find our keen- 
est sorrows. 

Harvey was bearing a greater weight of sorrow since he 
met Verna. To him it seemed that there was nothing left 
out in his destiny that could add to the bitterness of his 
grief. 

It is a strange coincidence of the human family that 
those who are tempted and tried, and made to suffer, are 
tempted and tried in that part of their character which has 
the preeminence over all others. Here were two people 
of a kindred nature, who, if united as man and wife, 
would spend life in an elysium, a heaven of their own ; 
but instead, as matters now were, a great gulf lay between 
them. 

Yet they were certain that God was not angry with 
them, because each sorrowed for the touch of the absent 
hand. They knew that the Lord did not chide them be- 
cause they longed for the music of each other’s voice. 


VERNA TEACHES OF GOD’s FAITHFULNESS. 


II9 


Nor would the One from whom all love springs, rebuke 
them because they loved each other better than all else on 
earth, if they kept their lives pure according to His laws; 
and by the aid of His Spirit, these laws they were keep- 
ing. All their sad experience was making their lives 
purer, better and sweeter, and at this time they were look- 
ing for their reward for enduring this their cross, in the 
“ sometime,” the Lord’s time; the “ somewhere” of His 
place and habitation. 



CHAPTER VIII. 


HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUL ACCIDENT. 

Harvey was so impressed by the inspiring words of 
Verna that he determined to rise above every difficulty, and 
to take up the burden of his life anew, and cease murmur- 
ing and grieving, as far as was possible. 

Perhaps he made this resolution too much in his own 
strength. If he did, he was afterwards forced to seek 
counsel and strength from the One who alone has wisdom 
to impart and strength to give, 

Harvey saw the necessity there was for work, and work 
by him, because the many were satisfied with all that was 
going on in the world, and the Church, for the most part, 
was at ease in Zion. Then surely, if God was teaching 
higher, grander truths to tlie few. He also was calling to 
them to give out to others what the Lord had shown to 
them. The constant opposition he met from the outside 
world was hard to overcome, but by the help of God he 
would become a true watchman. 

As he saw danger coming to the world, he would warn 
them as God gave him a message. From this time forth 
there was no holding back from any work that God re- 
quired of him to suit his own feelings or the sentiments of 
anyone else. It must be work for him now and always, 
while life lasted, for “ the night cometh when no man 
can work.” 

Harvey had in part outlined the work for himself that 
he felt God had for him to do. But the Lord tried him. 


HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUL ACCIDENT. 


I2I 


and having secured first place in his love, He would try 
him further, and if found worthy, the Lord had His own 
plans for him to carry out. 

Returning home on a train from a neighboring town one 
night Harvey, with many others, met with a terrible acci- 
dent. While the train that he was on was discharging its 
passengers at a station, another passenger train came up 
behind at high speed, and telescoped the last three cars of 
the train in which Harvey sat. 

Four women and three men were killed and some thirty 
were injured. The sufierings of the injured were terri- 
ble. Mangled and bleeding, they were firmly held under 
timbers and wreckage for hours before they were freed. 
Some had both legs broken, and some one leg and an arm 
broken. Harvey had one leg broken and was also severe- 
ly bruised about the body. In relating the story after- 
ward, he said he could never forget the shrieks and groans 
of the wounded. The dead and dying, bruised and man- 
gled, were sights he never wanted to see again. 

When the rescuing party came to Harvey, one of them 
asked : “ Are you much hurt?” 

‘‘No,” said he ; “ only one leg broken.” 

He, with all the others who were injured, were taken to 
the hospital to be treated. With a broken limb Harvey 
knew that it would be at least six weeks of confinement 
for him. 

At once he thought of how he was to do that work, on 
the accomplishing of which he had set his heart. The 
Lord took notice of the desire of his heart, even when en- 
during this affliction and pain. He would now give him 
something to do that would further the very work that was 
dearest to Harvey, — God’s plan of work, in the past, pres- 
ent and future of the world. Harvey remembered the 
little gatherings of ‘‘ Truth Seekers,” and the subject that 
liad engrossed their attention when last they had met : 


122 HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUL ACCIDENT. 

“Were all the promises made by God to Abraham ful- 
filled or did they stand before three worlds — heaven, earth 
and hell — as made, yet broken ? ” 

He firmly believed that all the promises made by God 
to Abraham and all other people had been faithfully kept, 
as written in the prophetic story of the Bible and re-writ- 
ten in history. With joy he thought he would now have 
an uninterrupted period of several months to study up this 
subject. He was quite willing to suffer pain and depriva- 
tion if he could do something to dispell the dark clouds of 
mystery that had been hanging so long over honest, up- 
right “ Truth Seekers,” those who would make a promise 
and keep it, or die in the attempt to fulfil that which they 
had promised. 

All such truthful spirits surely expected that a righteous. 
Almighty God would not make promises, unless He had 

ABUNDANT RESOURCES, CLEAR FORESIGHT AND OMNIPO- 
TENT POWER to carry out every promise. Such an expec- 
tation of a God who hath taught that He Himself was su- 
preme in every attribute above all others, was not too 
much for man to look for. Harvey made the resolution 
that he would dibgently seek wisdom to discern these hid- 
den truths from God Himself, and what he found he 
would write and send as essays to his fellow watchmen. 

All these thoughts passed through his mind in less time 
than it has taken to write them, anti meanwhile he forgot 
his pain and his broken leg. Then he began to wonder if 
Verna would come to see him, and if she did come, what 
would she say, what do.?^ He fell into a day-dream, and 
thought of seeing those sweet eyes filling with tears of 
sympathy ; that low voice speaking in tender accents, the 
emotions of the still more tender heart. In fancy he could 
almost feel the soft, warm clasp of her hand. Perhaps she 
would give him one caress, that which heretofore she had 
withheld. If she would come, and let the true instincts of 


HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUI. ACCIDENT. 1 2 ^ 

the woman in her thus speak and act, he would get well. 
Ah ! more, his weeks of suffering would be turned to joy 
in this one blessed hour of happiness. 

Then he prayed : “ Lord bid her come to me, comfort 
my sad life with that one sweet moment of pleasure. 
Comfort me, I who have never known any fruition of mu- 
tual affection, — that love that Thou hast placed in our 
hearts. And yet, O Lord, I commit my sorrows, my joys 
unto Thee, to bring to me, or to keep away, according ta 
Thy good pleasure.” 

With his whole soul filled with a joyful hope his pains 
would be more easily borne. After a few days rest and 
acquaintance with his surroundings he sent for a Bible and 
several books on history; and when brought to him, Har- 
vey asked God to show him wonderful things out of His 
Word. Day after day Harvey pondered over passages of 
Scripture and compared them with history, until at last he 
saw clearly that God had had a plan of campaign all 
through the ages, and that plan He was carrying on with- 
out any change as time rolled by. 

Mr. Randell and several of his friends had come to see 
him, and he told them of the truths he was finding in 
God’s Word and history, as of precious stones taken from 
mines of untold wealth. . 

They asked him to write what he found, and give the 
Scriptural references so that each could search for himselL 

At the next meeting Harvey sent the following : 

* * * * # * 

“ We have found that the many nations of promise are 
not in Ishmael, are not in Judah. And now as we seek for 
them it is necessary to notice the prophecies very partic- 
ularly and the distinction made between those relating to 
the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah ; keeping in mind 
that Ephraim and Israel always represent the ten tribes, 
and Judah the house of Judah, and for a time the tribe of 
Benjamin. 


124 HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUL ACCIDENT. 


“ Then it is essential to remember that JUDAH WAS 
ALWAYS TO BE KNOWN, while FOR A TIME 
ISRAEL WAS AS SURELY TO BE LOST. 

The birthright blessing given to Ephraim, to whom 
Jacob’s new name, Israel, was to be given, was something 
far different from the mission of Judah. 

“ The Jews of this day teach that all that is left of the 
seed of Israel are themselves, that all others have been 
slain. There is a veil over their eyes in this matter, as 
there is when they read the prophecies concerning Christ 
and His mission. If wrong in one, why not in the other? 

“ The Church and the world have passively consented 
to the same belief for two thousand five hundred years. 
By this belief and teaching they have merged the whole 
twelve tribes of Israel into the Jews, who are of the tribe 
of Judah only, and have left God ozit in the disposing of 
the nations, to complete this His mighty plan. 

“ When the Christian grasps the idea that every 
profnise znade by God^ and every covenant entered 
into by Him with any man shall and will be literally 
fulfilled; that He in truth is the covenant-keeping God, 
able with far-reaching plans and infinite resources to keep 
His covenant to ‘ Abram, His friend,’ and his seed; then 
and then only can he understand the true nature of this 
covenant given by oath to Abram. When we seek for 
lost Israel we must look for them in the ‘ bond of the cov- 
enant,’* to be an immense multitude that can scarcely be 
numbered, and according to Israel’s deathbed prophecy to 
Joseph, they would be increased into a ‘ multitude of na- 
tions.’ 

“ Therefore, let us take a more extended view of God 
and His wonderful plans to carry out His covenant to 
Abram, Isaac and Jacob, and their seed, and in the final 
restoration of all things that have been lost, always re- 


*Ezek. 20: 37. 


HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUE ACCIDENT. I 25 

membering that God’s plans are as far reaching as eter- 
nity ; that He does not legislate or plan for one generation, 
or for one thousand years, but forever. Most surely when 
God confirmed His covenant, not a part but all of it, to 
Abram, Isaac and Jacob, by an oath, having sworn by 
Himself, because He could swear by no greater. He was 
not to be turned aside by the assaults of the archenemy. 

“ Therefore, if God made a covenant with His servants 
it must be kept in every particular, or it stands before 
heaven, earth and hell as a broken covenant. 

“ This covenant stands before the world as partially 
kept. Then why not all It cannot be that the Church 
is spiritual Israel in a Gentile people ; it is literal Israel 
and spiritual Israel in one, or the covenant has been 
broken, because the prophet Ezekiel, whom God sent ta 
the Ten Tribes after they were carried away captive, told 
them by the Word of the Lord that ‘ He would bring 

THEM INTO THE BOND OF THE COVENANT,’* wllich WaS 
Salvation through Jesus Christ. 

“After certain wonderful chapters in their history, 
plainly written in the preceding verses, were fiJlfilled God 
promised to Jacob His servant, ‘ Whom I have chosen, I 
will pour out my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing 
upon thy offspring. ’f 

“ What God said respecting Ishmael and Judah through 
His servants, has been no myth; thus far, all have been 
fulfilled. Then we may be certain that all shall be ful- 
filled that was prophesied of the other tribes ; for He says, 
‘ I am the Lord, I change not.’| ‘ With whom is no vari- 
ableness, neither shadow of turning. ’§ 

“ This seeking for the many nations of promise and its 
development into the seeking for the lost Ten Tribes of 
Israel, is a subject that heretofore has excited ridicule in 
many; awakened no enthusiasm, no new spiritual life, no 

*Ezek. 20: 33 -38. tisa 44:3. JMal. 3: 6. iJames i: 17. 


9 26 HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUI. ACCIDENT. 


joyful anticipation, no higher, holier thoughts of the Eter- 
nal Covenant-Keeping God in the soul of the individual, 
in the Church, or in the nations. It has not been for lack 
of a good subject, for no subject for the last two thousand 
years, with the exception of the coming of Christ, has en- 
grossed the minds of the human race, whether the Red 
Man, Malay, Mongolian, Negro or Caucasian ; it is of 
-such far-reaching importance socially, politically or relig- 
iously. 

“ The proofs of all this have been gathered from the 
Bible, and there is in history an exact counterpart of these 
wonderful words of prophecy. Nothing seems to be lack- 
ing, thus far they are the sa7ne: but the end is not yet. 
Thoughtful men that have watched the progress of the 
world within the past few centuries, have expressed sur- 
prise in various ways. We hear of the survival of the 
fittest; of the predominant races. Men talk of the out- 
come of the fearful struggle that is sure to come between 
the nations before the tremendous armies and fearful im- 
plements of destruction are done away with, when ‘ men 
shall beat their swords into ploughshares;’- the struggle 
between capital and labor ; the tnorals of the nations; a 
universal language, and many other subjects of great im- 
portance. 

“ What has been seen and wondered at is very small in- 
deed compared with the history of the world yet to be 
written. There are many things yet to prove, many to 
disprove ; while the day is not very fiir distant when the 
world’s history will be re-written, and from a different 
standpoint than ever before; for the history of these Ten 
Tribes will form the groundwork and the plan. 

“ Let God again speak? ‘And yet for all that, when 
the}; be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them 
away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, 
•and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord 


HARVEY MEETS WITH A PAINFUL ACCIDENT. 12/ 

their God.’ ‘ But I will for their sakes remember the 
covenant of their ancestors^ whom I brought forth out of 
the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might 
be their God : I am the Lord.’* 

“■ Here is a new phase in God’s testimony : God prom- 
ised long years before they had sinned and were carried 
away captive, that when they were in the land of their 
enemies he would not abhor them or cast them away ; He 
would not destroy them utterly, nor break His covenant 
with them, because He had made the covenant with their 
ancestors. That covenant was not made with the children 
of the fathers, but made with the fathers for the children. 
Therefore, He could not break that covenant. Why 
* For I am the Lord their God.’ 

'•'’These two verses ought to silence all who argue that 
they, the Ten Tribes, are not on the face of the earth ; that 
they were all slain with the sword. 

ISRAEL NOT FORSAKEN. 

‘ Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light 
by day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars by 
night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof 
roar; the Lord of Hosts is His name : if those ordinances 
<lepart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed ol 
Israel shall cease to be a nation before me forever.’ 

‘‘ ‘ Thus saith the Lord ; If heaven above can be meas- 
ured, and the foundations of the earth searched beneath, I 
will also cast of all the seed of Israel for all that they have 
done saith the Lord.’f 

“ This word of God was uttered one hundred and seven- 
teen years after Israel was carried away to Assyria. We 
have seen that for nearly two thousand years the tribe of 
Judah, or the Jews have not been a nation; one here and 
there over every part of the habitable globe ; and yet we 


Lev, 26: 44-45. 


tier. 31: 35-37- 


ISRAEL NOT FORSAKEN. 


I 28 

have not seen the ordinances changed regarding the ‘ snn 
to give light by day and the moon and the stars by night 
still less has any one been able to ‘ measure the heavens/ 
as the deepest research only shovv^s more stars in the far 
av;ay, still more distant heavens. 

'•''God builds for the ages^ He delights in steadfast- 
ness. '' For Israel hath not been forsaken nor fudah of 
his God, of the Lord of Hosts ; thoiigh their land was 
filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.’* 

“ This word of the Lord was uttered one hundred and 
twenty-eight years after the nation of Israel was carried 
away, but the two kingdoms are still kept before the world 
by the prophet of the Lord. 

“ To those who say that the people of the house of Is- 
rael were all slain, we give the following Scriptures to 
prove that they were not : — 

“ ‘ Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking 
of an olive tree, two or three berries on the top of the up- 
permost boughs, four or five in the outmost fruitful 
branches thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel. ’f 

“ ‘ For thus hath the Lord said, the whole land shall be 
desolate, yet will I not make a full end.’J 

“‘Nevertheless, in those days, saith the Lord, /wf// 
not make a full end with you.’^ 

“ ‘ Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may hav6 some 
that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye 
shall be scattered through the countries. And they that 
escape of you shall remember me among the nations whith- 
er they shall be carried captives.’ H 

“ ‘ But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall 
be on the mountains like doves in the valleys, all of them 
mourning, every one for his iniquity.’^ 

“ By this remnant, these ‘gleaning grapes,’ God would 

*Jer. 51: 5. tis. 17: 3-5-6. JJer. 4: 27. §Jer. 5: 15-18. 

llEzek. 6: 1-9. HEzek. 7: 16. 


ISRAEL NOT FORSAKEN. ' 


I 29 

keep His covenant with Abraham, renewed to Joseph and 
confirmed to the Ten Tribes with Ephraim as their head. 
The Almighty must have had a definite end in view, when 
there was such a vast difference in the outcome of the cap- 
tivities of the two nations. The Lord had a mission of as 
great import as the mission of Judah for the remnant of Is- 
rael, the posterity of the seven thousand who had not 
bowed down to Baal^ who had not kissed the calves. Is- 
rael was to be lost for a time, yet God has given a history 
of their time of sojourn in Assyria, of the very time of 
their very going forth from that land, of the way they went, 
of where they were to go, of their religion in their new 
home, of many of their acts, tlieir inffuence over the 
world, the very territory they were to occupy ; in fact, a 
complete record of their doings as long as time lasts. Be- 
fore this history is entered into, it might be well to seek, 
out the reasons of the removal of Israel’s remnant and their 
continued exclusion from the land of Canaan. If this rea- 
son or purpose can be discovered, it will be a sure clue to 
find their mission in the world’s conflict. 

“ The House of Israel was to be '• utterly taken away,’ 
from the land of Canaan. But the time would come when 
these ‘gleaning grapes,’ this ‘ remnant’ should once more 
become a multitude, ‘ as the sand of the sea which cannot 
be numbered.’* This last prophecy was made by Hosea 
about two hundred years after Israel’s captivity and had 
reference to Ephraim, and the house of Israel of the fu- 
ture. 

‘‘ God could not cause the house of Israel who were so 
wrapped up in themselves, to accept Salvation, any more 
than He could the house of Judah, without depriving them 
of their free will or of their national pride. He had to 
remove them to where they would be lost for a time, lost 
to themselves and to the world, so that they might lose 

*Hosea i: 10. 


10 


130 


ISRAEL NOT FORSAKEN. 


not only their national pride, but also a certain idea of 
foreordination to great earthly blessings because they were 
the seed of Abraham. So the one tribe ivas smgled out 
by God, and by Jacob foretold that they should have a law- 
giver until Shiloh came. Judah must stay— -Christ must 
come. 

“ If all the tribes had remained iu' Canaan, they would 
have rejected Salvation through Jesus Christ. Ephraim 
showed more pride before they were carried away captive 
than did Judah. So the Lord removed them before that 
time came, as he had a mission for them of another kind. 

“ Israel still had their free will, but the Lord would re- 
move them far away, where according to prophecy such 
circumstances would surround them that they would have 
no national histor}' to look back to ; they could not boast 
or tell of their ancestry. The rites and ceremonies, the 
religions of the past would all be obliterated ; they should 
have no idols, no temples. 

“ Before Israel ever set foot in the land of Canaan, it 
w'as foretold by Balaam that Israel should be carried away 
captive by the Assyrians. ‘ Nevertheless the Kenites shall 
be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee (Israel) ' away 
captive.’* The Kenites were a part of the Canaanitish 
nations, whose land God promised to give to Abraham. f 
They were to be wasted (destroyed) by Israel, until Israel 
themselves were to be carried away captive by Asshur. 
All scholars agree that the name Assyria comes from 
Asshur. 

“ Surely when it was foretold that Israel should be car- 
ried away captive seven hundred and thirty years before it 
came to pass, and before Israel had sin??ed^ that there 
was a deeper meaning than the annihilation of the house 
of Israel. It was more than foreknowledge; it was in 
very truth part of the great plan of God in this conflict. 

tGen. 15: 19. 


■*Num. 24: 22. 


ISRAEL NOT FORSAKEN. 


I3I 

In such a conflict, and with such an All Wise Leader, with 
the tremendous issues at stake, every promise in every de- 
tail of the covenant to Abraham and to his seed must be 
carried out.” 

When Mr. Randell had finished reading this essay of 
Harvey’s, he said, “ It is easier for heaven and earth to 
pass, than for one jot or tittle of the law to fail.”* The 
words that Jacob and the other prophets spoke were all 
the law of God, and must be fulfilled as Christ said. 


*Luke 16: 17. 


CHAPTER IX. 


A RECOMPENSE. 

Thursday morning — the fifteenth of May, 189-, just 
three weeks after the railroad accident, when Harvey had 
his leg broken, was a beautiful, sunny morning. 

All nature was budding into new life. Trees, flowers 
and fields were putting on a new dress of beauty. Birds 
were singing to their Creator, and to one another. 

Harvey saw and felt all this as he gazed out of a window 
of the hospital upon the beautiful prospect of fields and 
forest stretched before Ifim. He had suflered much up to 
this time, but this morning he felt more comfortable. But 
the very peace and beauty of nature caused him to become 
once again moody and unhappy. What was beauty of 
landscape, fragrance of flowers and songs of birds, to such 
a desolate h^art as his.^ Storm, tempest and desolation 
would be more in accord with the life he was living. His 
whole nature revolted against his lonely life, and craved, 
for the harmony and home rest that was seen in all nature 
this May morning. His soul longed for the melody of a 
conjugal, afiectionate life. 

It is not to be wondered at that Harvey was so lonely. 
Every day he had hoped Verna would come, but now that 
hope was becoming dim. He asked himself : “ Whv can- 
not I bear my cross without murmuring.? Why cannot I 
shut out this craving for sweet intercourse in this life, and 
cast 'everything into the hoped-for joy of the life to 
come .? ” 


A RECOMPENSE. 


133 


Then he remembered that Christ broke down with the 
weight of the cross that men placed upon His shoulders, 
that when He fell under it when on the way to Calvary, 
they had pity and compelled another to carry it for Him. 

Some day God would say : “ It is enough.” Even with 
that consoling thought he could not understand why he 
had to suffer in the one part of his nature that was the 
strongest. He knew not that men and women are tried in 
the parts of their natures that take the lead of all others. 
If tried and proved in the lesser attributes of our natures, 
and overcoming the evil in them, it would not prove that 
we could likewise overcome if tempted and tried in the 
chief attributes of our natures. He was fighting a 
long, fierce battle with the things that pertain to 
this life. God was calling upon him and Verna 
to forsake all that they had, so that they could be His dis- 
ciples in truth, as gold purified in the fire. 

While Harvey had not given way altogether, yet he was 
alone, lonely and an invalid. This state of inaction was 
of itself enough to bring about his depressed feeling, and 
his longing to see Verna was but the better part of his 
manhood ; yet he did not see it in that way, and was wor- 
ried that he could not forget. 

With his thoughts thus occupied, he sat in an easy- 
chair, his broken leg in ^plints and resting on a stool, 
when he heard the light knock of the nurse on the door. 
When she came in she commenced putting the room in 
order, at the same time saying : “A lady has called to see 
you, but she did not give me her name.” 

Harvey was certain that it was Verna, and his changed 
feelings could not be described. When the nurse had ar- 
ranged everything in the room, she said to Harvey : 
“ Shall I bring her in now.^ ” 

“Yes,” he answered, while his voice trembled with 
suppressed emotion. 


134 


A RECOMPENSE. 


Presently the door opened and Verna, for it was she, 
came swiftly to his side, saying as she took hold of his 
hand : “ Oh, Harvey, I am so sorry for you. I wanted to 
come before, but could not. Have you suffered much.^” 

“ Yes,” he said. 

“ I did not need to ask you that question, for I can see 
that you have been in much pain,” said Verna. 

The drawn muscles of his face told her how much he 
had changed. Harvey noticed the feverish unrest tlrat was 
also in her face, which was so full of peace and rest at 
other times. 

“ I have been so lonely at times,” said Harvey, “ that I 
could scarcely keep up under it. I watched evei'y day for 
you to come.” 

“ I knew you would, but I could not come any sooner; 
but now I am here, and I have brought some lunch with 
me, enough for us both, and I will stay the longer for not 
coming before. 

‘‘ I have told the nurse that I have brought lunch for 
you, so that she will not bring any to-day.” 

Then she put her hand on his forehead in the most ten- 
der way. and said: '‘I am very sorry for you, Harvey, 
and I have prayed often that you might be spared much 
suffering, and that the Lord would comfort you with His 
presence. Sad as it is for you, I have found a song of 
praise in my heart that it was not worse. What would 
my life have been if you had been among the seven who 
were killed ? ” 

Her eyes fflled with tears as she said : You are living, 
and I am content.” 

“ If I had been one of the killed I should have been out 
of trouble now,” he said. 

“ Is that not a heartless, selfish thought for you, Har- 
vey, when you know — ” She could not finish the sen- 
tence. 


A RECOMPENSE. 


135 


Qiiickly he answered the question : ‘‘Yes, I admit it is 
heartless, and I ask your pardon for speaking so bitterly, 
when you are living and acting so kindly to me.” 

This was the third time this morning that Verna had 
called him by his christened name, and never at any other 
time had she done so. 

Verna brought a chair and sat down close to Harvey. 
“ Now,” she said, “ tell me all about the accident and your 
feelin2:s at the time, and afterwards as well.” 

Her gentle, soothing manner made Harvey feel perfect' 
ly at ease, and he told her of everything that had hap- 
pened, and what his thoughts were at the time. 

Many questions she asked, and he answered them. 
They knew not how swiftly time had passed until the clock 
struck twelve-noon. 

Then Verna rose up and said : “ I have kept you talk- 
ing so long, that I forgot to get your lunch ready.” Then 
placing a small table near him, she emptied the contents of 
the basket she had brought with her on it. There was a 
small bottle of lemonade, some brown bread, cold chicken, 
pop-overs, cream and orange cake, and several kinds of 
fruit. 

“This bread is my own baking, Harvey,” she said; 
“ I did not think you would enjoy it unless I prepared it 
myself.” 

“ What made you think so.^” asked Harvey. 

Verna did not speak, but her flushed face was a more 
teufler answer than any words she could have spoken. 

This was the first time they had ever partaken of food 
together, and it was an unspeakable joy to both ; and 
the happy thought of Verna that had brought it about. 
Such an hour they would riever forget. Both wondered if 
it would be the last time. 

Long they lingered over this lunch, and though many 
thoughts were uttered, as many were not. 


136 


A RECOMPENSE. 


At last Verna gathered up the fragments, leaving quite 
a supply of fruit for Harvey at a future time. 

As the afternoon wore away their recently animated 
faces began to assume a sadder look, for both knew that 
this time of sweet intercourse must soon end, and days and 
weeks of separation must come. 

Realizing that they must separate, Verna said: How 
much longer will the doctor keep you here?” 

If no change comes for the worse I can be removed in 
three weeks,” he answered. 

“I cannot come to see you again while you are here,” 
said Verna. 

“I cannot complain,” said Harvey, “ as you have come 
this once, and lunched with me, and stayed so long be- 
sides.” 

“ You are busy every day studying the Bible and his- 
tory, I suppose,” she interrupted. 

“Yes,” said he, “if it were not for that pleasure, I 
do not know what I would have done in the past three 
weeks. But now I have something else to think about. 
You have given me great pleasure this day.” 

“ I wanted to comfort you in your trouble as far as I 
could, and I am glad I have succeeded. You will think 
of me kindly for this, will you not, Harvey?” she said, 
with a tremor in her voice. 

“ Yes, Verna, I will. Never can I forget your tender 
sympathy at this time, and at all other times.” 

This was the first time Harvey had spoken her chris- 
tened name in her presence, and she was quick to notice 
it, and gave one swift glance at his face, while her own 
face was lit up with, smiles. 

She had risen to her feet some time before to leave, but 
she still lingered. 

“ Do you really need to go so early? Can you not sit 
down again?” he said. 


A RECOMPENSE. 


137 


“ It is best that I should go now,” she said, “ and I do 
hope your suffering is over. You must notallow yourself 
to get lonely and fretful ; you will soon'be away from here, 
and then you will begin your work for the Lord again.” 

Still Verna lingered. The invisible chords of love and 
sympathy drew these two hearts together, and the 
moments were now more precious to them than ever 
before. 

Verna held out her hand to Harvey and said: “I will 
not say goodby, for it might be indeed goodby for us, but 
I will say good afternoon.” 

As she said this she put her other hand on his head in 
the most caressing manner. 

Harvey gave her one pleading look and drew her down 
to him, as he sat in the easy-chair. 

Verna well understood his look, and put her arm around 
his neck, and gave him one caress, and turned quickly 
away. 

“ Again I say good afternoon to you, Harvey.” 

“ Good afternoon, Verna, may our Heavenly Father 
bless and comfort you for your tender sympathy^ ! ” 

Light and sunshine seemed to turn to darkness in that 
little room as Verna went out. 

Harvey shut his eyes so that everything else might be 
shut out from his vision and memory, so that he might live 
those few hours over again. He would impress the scene 
upon his mind forever. Not as a vision from the Happy 
Land, but as a blessed reality. He would fix in memory 
the words she spoke, the music of her voice, the womanly 
thought of bringing a lunch with her, that their being to- 
gether would be natural and proper, so that the time they 
spent together would be action in part and not all senti- 
ment. 

Her farewell — he need not think of that to indelibly im- 
press it upon his memory. That moment was fixed with- 
in his very soul for all time. 


>38 


A RECOMPENSE. 


He now knew how pure and unspotted her soul was, 
and he resolved, with the help of the Lord, that as far as 
he was concerned Verna should give back to God the soul 
He had given to her, as pure and unspotted as when she 
received it from Him. “ For,” said he, “ if I were in any 
way culpable, both our lives would be filled with shame 
and confusion, instead of the happiness that we now 
have.” 

He thanked the Lord that He had sent Verna to him, he 
thanked Him that his dream had become reality, his 
prayer had been indeed answered. 

On the following morning Harvey remembered that he 
had another essay to prepare for the company of Truth 
Seekers before their next meeting, and he at once set to 
work and prepared the following: 

THE YEARS OF ISRAEl/s CAPTIVITY. 

“ We will now return and trace out the history of the 
remnant of Ephraim and the other tribes as we left them 
on their weary march to the land of their captivity.* For 
in that re?nnant the lost nations of promise must have an 
existence according to the sworn promise of God to 
Abraham. 

“ The prophet describes their terrible state at that time : 
‘ As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God ; 
Go ye serve every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye 
will not hearken unto me : but pollute ye no more my holv 
name with your gifts, and with your idols. ’t 

‘‘ ‘Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all 
the streets, as a wild bull in a net : they are full of the fury 
of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God.’| 

* “ ‘ Ask ye now and see whether a man doth travail with 
child wherefore do I see every man with his hands on 
his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned 


*2 Kings 17: 6. 


tEzek. 20: 39. 


Jlsa. 51; 20. 


A RECOMPENSE. 


139^ 

into paleness? Alas ! for that day is great, so that none is 
like it : it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble ; but he shall 
be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass on that day 
saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will break his yoke from ofT 
his neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no 
more serve themselves of him.’* 

“ There never was a day of trouble like it for Israel ; but 
we have the blessed promise that ‘ he shall be saved out of 
it.’ The yoke of the Assyrian would be broken from oft 
his neck, the bond would be burst, and when Israel was 
once more free, one thing they were sure of, that never 
again would any Gentile nation or people rule over them. 
At some time they might be subject one nation to another 
for a time; but not to or Gentiles. These are 

far reaching promises, heaven’s greatest blessings to a 
nation. 

“When the subject of the ten lost tribes of Israel was 
first brought forward by others it was presented with this 
thought leading all others, that they were to be carried 
away and never to be known again ; and that when they 
were carried away, never a^ain had God any intercourse 
with them through His prophets. 

“ This dogma has been diligently taught ; but by a close- 
reading of the prophets this teaching will be found wrong 
and misleading. 

“ Ezekiel was sent to them of the captivity to the River 
Chebar, even to the house of Israel, to the remnant with 
many special messages, foretelling their future mission and 
history ; even so much so that he might be called the 
prophet of the House of Israel. 

“ ‘ And he said unto me. Son of man, go, get thee unto 
the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. 
For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech or a 
hard language, but to the house of Israel ; not to many 


*Jer. 30: 5-8. 


140 


A RECOMPENSE. 


people of a strange speech.’* ‘ I do send thee unto them ; 
and thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord God. 
And they, whether they will hear or whether they will 
forbear, (for they are a rebellious house) yet shall know 
that there hath been a prophet a7nong them.^ 

“ ‘ And. when I looked behold a hand was sent unto me ; 
and lo, a roll of a book was therein ; And he spread it out 
before me ; and it was written within and without : and 
there was written therein lamentations, mourning and 
woe.’ j 

“ ‘ Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-Abib, 
that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they 
sat, and remained there among them astonished seven days. 
And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the 
word of the Lord came unto me, saying. Son of man, I 
have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: 
therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warn- 
ing from me.’§ 

This commission was given to Ezekiel one hundred 
-and twenty years after the house of Israel had been carried 
away captive : ‘Yet shall Israel know that there hath been 
a prophet among them they were not left alone ; God 
still cared for them, still watched over them, still loved 
them. ‘ Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant unto 
thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto 
thee an everlasting covenant.’ || 

“ No wonder Ezekiah sat among them astonished when 
he saw the desolate state into which they had fallen, and 
what sin had wrought. 

“ Ezekiel 'by a sign tells the house of Israel how long 
they shall be held in captivity by Assyria. 

“ ‘ This shall be a sign unto the House of Israel. Lie 
thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house 
of Israel upon it: according to the number of days thou 


*Ezek. 3: 4. tEzek. 2: 5. JEzek. 2: 9-10. §Ezek. 3: 15-17. IIEzek. 16: 60. 


A RECOMPENSE. 


141 

shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the 
years of their iniquity, according to the number of the 
days, three huitdred and 7iin€ty days: so shalt thou bear 
the iniquity of the house of Israel. I have appointed thee 
each day for a year.’ 

Israel had now been In captivity one hundred and 
twenty years, but by this sign the house of Israel was to 
remain in captivity another three hundred and ninety 
years. 

“ Isaiah confirms the length of their sojourn in Assyria 
in graphic words: ‘ For yet a very little time, and the in- 
dignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. 
And the Lord of hosts shall stir up. a scourge for them 
(Assyria) according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock 
of Oreb : and as his rod is upon the sea, so shall he lift it 
up after the manner of Egypt.’* 

“ When we read, ' after the manner of Egypt,’ memory 
brings vividly before us that ever memorable going down 
of the seventy souls into Egypt, their stay of about four 
hundred years, their slavery, their wonderful increase in 
that time to six hundred thousand men besides women and 
children, the terrible plagues sent on Pharaoh, the final 
destruction of his hosts in the Red Sea, the splendid equip- 
ments of the Israelites in household goods, gold, silver 
and goodly apparel, and the great haste with which they 
left, the great barrier put between the Egyptians and the 
Israelites, the security of the Israelites, and the utter ina- 
bility of their foes to follow or pursue the sons of Jacob. 

“ 4 A scourge ’ was to be made for the Assyrians accord- 
ing to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb, where 
Gideon with three hundred men was used by God to al- 
most totally annihilate the multitude of the Midianites, who 
lay along the valley like grasshoppers. 

‘‘As in the terrible overthrow of the Egyptians and 

*ls. 10: 24-27. 


143 


A RECOMPENSE. 


Midianites, man was the instrument and God was the 
director, counsellor and commander of oppressed Israel. 

“ It was still Israel, and it was still God who was Cap- 
tain of the hosts: ‘ For yet a little wliile and the indigna- 
tion shall cease, and His anger in their destruction.’ The 
‘ burden of the Assyrian,’ was to be taken off his (Israel’s) 
shoulder, ‘And the yoke from off his neck, the yoke des- 
troyed because of the anointing.'’* This anointing was 
God’s covenant with Abraham, the anointing of Ephraim 
to the birthright and his great mission ; the mission of 
Manasseh and Benjamin, and the other tribes as made 
known to them by God through His servants Jacob and 
Moses. Thus we see there was a remnant saved, and 
and after a certain titne they were to come forth froin the 
country of their sojourn and slavery. 

“ ‘ Dear Watchers,’ wrote Harvey, ‘Please read Eze- 
kiel 20 : 32-3S, and you will see that Ezekiel was still giv- 
ing the Word of the Lord to the House of Israel ; he had 
not returned. In these verses a distinct history was writ- 
ten for the House of Israel. Their enemies were to be 
destroyed; God had a place, a country prepared for 
Israel where they would carry out the great mission given 
to them to carry out.’ 

“ Before reading of the redemption of the House of 
Israel, a few extracts from Josephus will be well to read : 

“ ‘ Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, besieged Samaria 
three years, and took it by force in the ninth year of the 
reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh year of Hezekiah, 
king of Jerusalem, and quite demolished the governments 
of the Israelites, and transplanted all the people into 
Media and Persia ; and when he had removed these peo- 
ple out of their land he transplanted other nations — 
Cutliah, a place so-called, into Samaria and into the coun- 
try of the Israelites. So the Ten Tribes were removed 


•Isa. 10: 27. 


tEzek. 20: 38. 


A KECOMPENSE. 


M3 

out of Judea nine hundred and forty-seven years after their 
forefathers were come out of the land of Egypt, and pos- 
sessed themselves of this country, but eight hundred years 
after Joshua had been their leader, and as I have already 
observed, two and forty years, seven months and seven 
days, after they haa revolted from Rehoboam the grand- 
son of David.’ 

‘‘ ‘ But now the Cutheans, who had removed into 
Samaria, for that is the name they had been called by to 
this time, because tliey had been brought out of the coun- 
try called Cuthah, which is a country of Persia, each of 
them according to their nations, which were in number 
five, brought their own gods into .^'amaria, and by wor- 
shipping, as was the custom of their own countries, they 
provoked Almighty God to be angry and displeased at 
them, for a plague seized upon them by which they were 
destroyed ; and when they found no cure for their miser- 
ies, they learned by the oracle they ought to worship 
Almighty God as a method for their deliverance. So they 
sent ambassadors to the king of Assyria, and desired him 
to send them some of the priests of the Israelites which he 
had taken captive. And when he thereupon sent them, 

• 

the people were by them taught the laws and the holy 
worship of God, they worship Him in a respectful man- 
ner, and the plague ceased immediately, and indeed they 
continued to make use of the very same customs to this 
very time, and are called in the Hebrew tongue Cutheans, 
but in ftie Greek Samaritans. And when they see the 
Jews in prosperity they pretend that they are changed, 
.and allied to them, and call them kinsmen, as though they 
were derived from Joseph, and by that means had an orig- 
inal alliance with them ; and when they see them falling 
into a low condition, they say they are in no way related 
to them, and that the Jews had no right to expect any 
kindness or marks of kindred from them, but they declare 
that they are sojourners come from other countries.’ 


144 


A RECOMPENSE. 


“ or Rehoboam’s flight to Jerusalem ^fter the council 
held with the people of the Ten Tribes, Josephus says: 
‘ So he got immediately into his chariot, and fled to Jeru- 
salem, where the king of the tribe of Benjamin and that 
of Judah ordained him king. 

“ ‘ But the rest of the multitude forsook the sons of 
David from that day. Such was the end of the nation of 
the Hebrews, as it has been delivered down to us; for the 
people of the Ten Tribes were carried down out of 
Samaria by the Assyrians, in the days of the king 
Hoshea, afterward the people of the two tribes that re- 
mained in Jerusalem was taken away by Nebuchadnez- 
zar, the king of Babylon and of Chaldea. 

“ ‘ Now as to Shalmaneser, he removed the Israelites 
out of their country to which they were removed ; but the 
king of Babylon who brought out the two tribes, placed 
no other nation in their country, by which means all Judea 
and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be desert for 
seventy years ; but the entire interval of time which 
passed from the captivity of the Israelites, to the carrying 
of the two tribes, proved to be a hundred and thirty years, 
six months and ten days.’ — Book iv.-xiv. 

THE MANNER OF ISRAEL’S REDEMPTION. 

SHALMANESER’S REASONS FOR CARRYING ISRAEL INTO CAPTIVITY. 

It is essential to give a description of the country in 
which Israel sojourned, and of the people who carried 
them captive, before anything like a clear view can be 
had of the many circumstances connected with their re- 
moval from their country, their sojourn in a strange land 
for years, and their final exit into freedom once more. 

“A misty darkness has settled over the history of the 
Ten Tribes from the time they were carried into captivity. 
Yet there is a historv of them in God’s Word, a light 
which will penetrate that darkness. 


THE MANNER OF ISRAEL’S REDEMPTION. I45 

“The beginning of the Assyrian Empire 2000 B. C. 

“ ‘ Out of that land went fortb Asshur, and builded Nin- 
eveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah.’* 

“ Here we have Asshur as the founder of Nineveh and 
sister cities, which was the beginning of the great Assyr- 
ian nation. The name Assyria was taken from Asshur, 
who founded this great Empire ; and centuries after the 
Assyrians deified Asshur, making him their great god, by 
emblems in sculpture, by building temples, erecting altars 
and rendering him homage and worship. 

“ One city in the heart of Assyria bears the name of 
Asshur, and throughout the existence of this great Empire 
there were at least fourteen kings whose names began or 
ended with that of the founder of the nation. 

“ The fall of Assyria was about 635 B. C., or one hun- 
dred years after Israel was carried into captivity. Media 
and Babylon divided between them her extensive terri- 
tories. It is a matter of doubt which of the nations held 
sway over the region where Israel dwelt. The place 
where the children of Israel were carried to was a region 
lying very near the extreme outskirts or borderland of 
Babylon, at least five hundred miles from Babylon, and a still 
greater distance from the seat of government of the Medes. 
A people and a country in which little or no interest would 
be taken by either empire. The people had been placed 
there as captives some hundred of years before. Several 
hundred years had come and gone for both captive and 
captor. The captor himself was then captive, and no in- 
terest was taken in the Israelites. 

“ Rawlinson says, in speaking of the Babylonian, 
Median and Persian empires: ‘It is doubtful if they 
called on the subject nations for any contingent of troops. 
We never heard of their doing so. Probably like the 
Assyrians they made their conquests with armies com- 

*Gen. 10: 11-12. 


11 


146 THE MANNER OF ISRAEl/s REDEMPTION. 

posed entirely of native soldiers, or of those combined 
with such forces as were sent to their aid by princes in 
alliance with them.’ So none of the House of Israel 
would be taken as soldiers, by either the Assyrians or the 
Babylonians. 

‘^Much of this region was depopulated before the 
Israelites were placed there, as it was uncultivatable ; 
mountain range succeeding mountain range in six or eight 
parallel lines, opening toward the southwest, and towards 
the Great Sea — the Mediterranean. 

“ Most of the mountain ranges were barren rocks, in 
some places facing each other, in the clefts of which snow 
remained till midsummer. This people must have been 
poor, because they were captive and isolated ; and the 
greedy Chaldean and the conquest-loving Mede would 
find nothing in the country or the people to draw their at- 
tention. 

“ The Assyrians for about one thousand years had car- 
ried fire, blood and death into every land they visited, 
claiming all as the power of their god Asshur. The mighty 
kingdom suffered its first great defeat at the hand of the 
Lord of Hosts in the land of Judea. ‘ I will break the 
Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him 
under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and 
his burden depart from off their shoulders.’* ‘ In the 
night when the Assyrian host slept, the angel of the Lord 
went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians, one hun- 
dred four score and five thousand : and when they arose 
in the morning they were all dead men.’ The Assyrian 
had at last met a foe that he could not overcome. His god 
could not bring victory to his arms against Israel’s God, 
when Israel called upon Him in faith. So the Assyrian 
king returned home shorn of his glory, with few, how 
very few, of his great host! What a story those who re- 

*Isa. 14; 25. 


THE MANNER OF ISRAEL’S REDEMPTION. 


H7 

turned had to tell of the cause and the strange means used 
b> the God who had conquered them ! What pen can 
describe their home-coming! 

“Next came the great Scythian invasion, from the 
frozen regions of the North. Fearing no danger, hungry, 
and in ‘ countless numbers,’ came these barbarian hordes, 
with characteristics comparable only to the wolves of the 
snows of Russia, and with irresistible force they overran 
the land of Assyria. 

“ ‘ For when a Scythian slew an enemy in battle he im- 
mediately proceeded to drink his blood. He then cut off 
the head to exhibit to the king, in order to obtain his share 
of the spoil ; after which he stripped the scalp from the 
skull and hung it on his bridle rein as a trophy. The 
upper portion of the skull he commonly made into a 
drinking cup.’* 

“ That they were characteristically bloodthirsty and sav- 
age, is shown by the fact ‘ their object of worship was a 
naked sword.’ Captives taken in warfare were afterwards 
hewn in pieces, and their blood poured on the particular 
sword of their worship. 

“ The coming of the Scythians into Assyria is described 
by Rawlinson ‘ Pouring through the passes of the Cau- 
casus — whence coming, or what intending none knew, — 
horde after horde of the Scythians blackened the rich 
plains of the south. On they came like a flight of 
locusts, countless, irresistible, — finding the land before 
them a garden, leaving it behind them a howling wilder- 
ness. Neither sex nor age was spared.’ The flocks 
would be consumed, the herds driven ofl', the villages and 
homesteads burned, the whole country made desolate. 

‘ These clouds of horses (for the Scythians fought only on 
horseback) passed over all of the flat and best lands of the 
Assyrian Empire.’ They were like a great tidal wave. 


•Rawlinson. 


148 THE MANNER OF ISRAEL’S REDEMPTION. 

which came only to the foot of the mountains, and as 
water will not run up hill, neither would these mounted 
warriors, but were forced to clingy together on the plains, 
and leave unexplored the unknown mountain passes and 
regions of the river Chebar, where the Lord had placed 
Israel in safety from this fierce swarm of northern 
savages. 

“ The Scythians had left their own country almost de- 
populated. The invasion became weaker as it spread iL 
self, and like a tidal wave when its momentum is lost, they 
began to retreat into their haunts; for they wandered for 
plunder only, settling nowhere. 

“ Except in one or two cases the invaders left no trace 
of their brief but terrible inroad. Their retirement was 
so complete that they scarcely left a trace of their power 
or of their presence in the geography or ethnography of 
the country. One Palistinian city only, as already ob- 
served, and one Armenian province, retained in their 
names a lingering memory of the great inroad, which but 
for them would have passed away without making any 
more permanent mark on the region than a hurricane or 
a snow storm.’ This was about the year 632 B. C. 

“It was the scourge that the Lord said He would stir 
up against Assyria.* This was the great cause of the 
downfall of the proud and haughty Assyrian, who had 
held sway over all the nations for nearly one thousand 
years. And close on the heels of the Scyths, in 627 B. C., 
came the armies of the Medes and Babylonians, who had 
entered into an alliance against the Assyrians. In a short 
time they had made a complete conquest of the whole 
Empire, and portioned off to each other the whole terri- 
tory of that mighty and ancient nation. ‘ The empire of 
the Assyrians thus fell, not so much from the effects of any 
inherent weakness or from the effect of gradual decay, as 


*Isa. 10: 26. 


THE MANNER OF ISRAELIS REDEMPTION. 


149 


•by an unfortunate combination of circumstances — the oc- 
currence of a terrible inroad of Northern Barbarians just 
as the warlike nation of the Medes, long settled on the 
borders of Assyria, and within a short distance of her 
capital, was increasing by accidental and abnormal ones in 
greatness and strength.’ Thus writes George Rawlinson, 
the great historian. But the Bible reader will see the 
Divine Hand through the whole course of the rise and fall 
of this empire in disposing of the nations for the further- 
ing of God’s great ends in preparing Israel to be 

THE LIGHT-BEARER IN THE COVENANT OF GRACE.’ ‘ I 

will place Salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.’ 

A SUMMARY. 

“ The scientist infidel hath 
said, ‘ That Divine Revela- 
tion is but the dream of a 
weak, imaginative mind.’ 


‘ The fool hath said in 
his heart that there is no 
God.’ 


“ ‘ I will break the Assyr- 
ian in my land, and upon 
my mountains tread him un- 
der foot.’ 

—Is. 14: 25. 


“‘The Assyrian army 
were encamped about Jeru- 
salem on Mount Zion, and 
it came to pass that night 
that the angel of the Lord 
went out and smote in the 
camp of the Assyrians an 
hundred fourscore and five 
thousand.’ 

—2d Kings 19:35. 


“ ‘ I will punish the fruit 
of the stout heart of the king 
of Assyria, and the glory of 
his high looks. Forhesaith, 

By the strength of my hand “The once proud and 


A SUMMARY. 


150 


have I done it, and by my 
wisdom ; for I am prudent: 
and I have removed the 
bounds of the people and 
have robbed their treasures, 
and I have put down the in- 
habitants like a valiant 
man.’ 

— Is. 10: 12-14. 

“ ‘ I have therefore deliv- 
ered him into the hand of the 

MIGHTY ONE OF THE HEATH- 
EN ; he shall surely deal with 
them ; I have driven him out 
for his wickedness. And 
STRANGERS, the terrible of 
the nations, have cut him 
off, and have left him upon 
the mountains and in all the 
valleys his branches are fall- 
en, and his boughs are bro- 
ken by all the rivers of the 
land ; and all the people of 
the earth are gone down 
from his shadow, and have 
left him.’ 

— Ezek. 31: 11-12. 

“ ‘ And your spoil shall be 
gathered like the gathering 
of the caterpillar, as the run- 
ning to and fro of locusts 
shall he run upon them.’ 

—Is: .33: 4. 


boastful Assyrian had be- 
come low when he met the 
Lord in battle. 


“‘Pouring through the 
passes of the Caucasus, — 
WHENCE COMING or what in- 
tending none knew, — horde 
after horde of Scythians 
blackened the rich plains of 
the South.’ 


“ ‘ Like a flight of locusts, 
countless, irresistible.’’ 
‘ These clouds of horses 
passed over all the best and 
flat lands of the Assyrian 
Empire. They fought only 
on horseback.’ 


A SUMMARY. 


“ ‘ Then shall the Assyr- 
ian fall with the sword, not 
with a mighty man ; and the 
sword not of a mean man, 
shall devour him : but he 
shall flee from the sword, 
and his young men shall be 
discomfitted. And he shall 
pass over to his stronghold 
for fear.’ 

— Is. 31: 8-9. 

“ ‘ And the Lord of hosts 
shall stir up a scourge for 
him.’ 

— Is. 10: 26. 

“‘The highways lie 
waste ; The wayfaring man 
ceaseth.’ 

—Is. 33: 8. 

“ ‘ Behold their valiant 
ones shall cry without, the 
ambassadors of peace shall 
weep bitterly.’ 

—Is. 33: 7. 

“ ‘ Thou hast multiplied 
thy merchants above the 
stars of heaven ; the canker 
worm spoileth and fleeth 
away.’ 

— Nah. 3: 16. 

“ ‘ Asshur is there and all 
her company, his graves are 


15 ' 


“ ‘ Finding the land before 
them a garden, leaving it 
behind them a howling wil- 
derness.’ 


“ The most valiant young 
man of the Assyrians could 
not stand before the mad 
rush of the Scythian horse- 
man. 


“‘Neither sex nor age 
was spared.’ 

“ ‘ They wandered for 
plunder only, settling no- 
where : excepting in one or 
two cases, the invaders left 
no more trace of their brief 
but terrible inroad, than a 
hurricane or snow storm.’ 

“ ‘ Neither sex nor age 


*52 


A SUMMARY. 


about hiai : all of them fall- was spared.’ 
en by the sword.’ 

— Ezek, 32: 22, 


“ ‘ And I will execute ven- 
geance in anger and fury 
upon the heathen, such as 
they have not heard.’ 

— Mic. 5: 15. 

“ Thus the Lord instruct- 
ed His prophets to write.” 


“‘No such scourge or 
vengeance ever fell on the 
nations since the flood.’ 

“ Thus writes the histori- 
an after it had come to pass, 
not knowing that God had 
written it all down ages be- 
fore.” 


CHAPTER X. 


A COVENANT KEPT. 

Harvey forgot his lonely life, his broken leg, in the 
•great joy of tracing out chapter after chapter of the here- 
tofore hidden and mysterious history of the lost House of 
Israel. Day by day these new and wondrous truths were 
shown to him. And why not? for it was his daily prayer 
to God that the Lord Himself would not only instruct 
him, but that he would also enable him to write the story 
of lost Israel found again. 

God was enabling him “ with joy to draw water out of 
the wells of Salvation.”^ All this hidden history, the vis- 
ion concerning Daniel’s people of the latter days, which 
was to be shut up for many days,t but now revealed, was 
showing forth God’s power, wisdom and His wondrous 
faithfulness in keeping His promise to Abraham’s chil- 
dren, and no wonder others were so much impressed. 

About this time Harvey received the following letter 
from the Watchers, which was written by May Melrose : 

“Mr. Harvey Douglass, 

“ Dear Sir and Brother: No doubt the thought has 
come to you, since your accident. Why have I been called upon to 
bear this pain and suffering? And yet we do not reproach you with 
repining or rebelling against God’s Providence towards you. We feel 
that you have in your Christian experience risen above any such 
thoughts. 

“We, as your fellow Watchers, offer you our deepest sympathy in 
your suffering. We would comfort you because you have given us 

•Isa. 12: 3. tDan, 8: 26; 12: 4-9. 


154 


A COVENANT KEPT. 


such deep comfort in the Lord and in His works as manifested in 
the world, and as shown by you in the essays that you have sent 
to us. 

“We think that those deep truths could only have been gathered 
together by your being separated from the world, and alone with 
God, as you have been in the weeks that you have been shut up fronii 
your active outside work. 

“We are so much impressed with those truths that we believe 
this accident was sent to you that you and others might know more 
of God’s sovereign power in the world. 

“We could refer you to many similar chapters in Church and 
Bible biographies, but these are better known to you than to us. Let 
your mind recall some of them, and the great benefits that came to- 
the world through their temporary sufferings, and rest assured that 
great good will also come to God’s cause through your misfortune. 

“Be comforted with His sure promise, that ‘all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God.’ Trust and wait upon Him 
for a reward in His time and in His way, for it will surely come. 
Praying that God’s richest, fullest blessing may be given to you, 
I remain. Yours truly, 

“ May Melrose.” 

This letter was a source of consolation to Harvey. He 
had the hope that by his researches others would be bene- 
fitted. Thus encouraged he was a very diligent student 
of God’s Word and of history for the next ten days. 

At that time he had another essay prepared, and al- 
though a long one on the subject, will not well bear divid- 
ing. 

This essay is the last that Harvey wrote before leaving 
the hospital, and it is of the utmost importance to those 
who want light on this subject that it be read very care- 
fully, as it clears up the misty darkness that'has surround- 
ed the captivity of tlie Ten Tribes of Israel, and their com- 
ing forth from the land of their sojourn into freedom once 
more; also part of their after-history as told in Bible 
story. 

***** 

“ When Shalmanezer carried away the children of Israel 
from their own land, and placed them by the river Che- 


A COVENANT KEPT. 


i5'5 

bar, it was only the carrying out of a settled principle 
in the government of the Assyrian Empire. The empire 
was largely made up of conquered people, who were 
forced to pay a heavy tribute to the conqueror ; and the 
oppressed people sought every opportunity to throw oft' 
this yoke. Thus there were alliances and consequent re- 
bellions of the subject people who loved their freedom, 
their homes, and their own laws, so that the central gov- 
ernment had again and again to over-run them and sub- 
due their rebellions, and force them to pay the tribute im- 
posed. To destroy this love of freedom, religion, coun- 
try and home, they marched them as a whole nation, hun- 
dreds of miles into a foreign country ; and placed them in 
cities from which others had been taken, on account of re- 
bellion against, or insubordination to the Assyrian govern- 
ment. In the reigns of Sargon, Sennachereib and Esar- 
hadden it was carried to the greatest extent. The Chal- 
deans were transported into . Armenia ; Jews and Israel- 
ites into Assyria and Babylon ; the Arabians, Babylonians- 
and Susianians into Palestine. The most distant portions- 
of the empire changed inhabitants ; no sooner did a peo- 
ple become troublesome from its love of freedom and in- 
dependence, than it was weakened by dispersion and its- 
spirit subdued by a severance of all its local associations.’* 
“ Thus rebellion was in some measure kept down, and 
the position of the sovereign state made more secure. The 
Assyrians had come to crush the second rebellion of 
Israel -* these with the first subjection of the Israelites^ 
made three campaigns and marches into the land of Israel. 
So that the Assyrian king in anger would now carry away 
the whole nation, even as the Lord said : ‘ As a shepherd 
taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of 
an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that 
dwell in Samaria.’! 


*Rawlinson. 


tAmos 3: 12. 


156 


A COVENANT KEPT. 


“ The anger of the Assyrian was fierce indeed, and he 
thought he had good reason for wrath, while he was but 
carrying out the wishes of Israel's God. So he carried 
them ALL AWAY and placed them by the river Chebar. 

“ Israel’s empty cities were then filled with people who 
'had given Assyria trouble while in their native land. The 
Lord calls them ‘ the worst of the heathen.’* Many of the 
people and nations that were thus made captive were nat- 
urally discontented with their surroundings, and when the 
opportunity came they gathered together and sought some 
more congenial spot where they could start anew in life 
as a nation, or as a people, satisfied with homes and free- 
dom restored. 

“ Rawlinson records that a large body of Chaldeans 
withdrew from the Assyrian Empire and transferred 
themselves to the Elamite king. Carrying with them 
their gods and treasures, they embarked in ships and 
crossed the ‘ Sea of the Rising Sun,’ — the Persian Gulf, — 
landing on the Elamite coast, where they were kindly re- 
ceived and permitted to take up their abode. The histo- 
rian then adds, quoting from old historians, ‘ Such volun- 
tary removals were not uncommon in the East.’ So that 
it was natural that the children of Israel should seek a 
home for themselves in some other region, more congen- 
ial to their tastes, where they could forget the past. 

“The menial labor they had to endure and’ the cruelty 
of the proud Assyrian would be a heavy burden on the 
proud Israelites, especially the still more proud Ephraim- 
ites, to whom had been given the place of first-born among 
the sons of Jacob. 

“ For five centuries Assyria had ravaged with war all 
the adjacent countries; and now after fifty years of fearful 
strife and convulsion, with new and numberless savage 
(foes, she had gone down, never to rise again. 


*Ez. 7: 24. 


A COVENANT KEPT. 


157 


“ Thirty-five years after the Assyrian Empire was con- 
quered and divided between the Medes and Babylonians, 
the tribe of Judah was carried away by the Babylonians." 
Amid all these changes in the rise and fall of empires, and 
after the lapse of one hundred and thirty years since Israel 
was made captive, it is not possible, as some say, that the 
two nations ever came together again. 

“ Then came the revolt of the Persians under Cyrus, 
who overturned the kingdom of the Medes. This subju- 
gation of the Medes by the Persians took the center of 
power and government at least another five hundred miles 
away from where the house of Israel sojourned. The 
remnant of the house of Israel would, therefore, be dwell- 
ing almost alone in this rugged mountain region where the 
Assyrian king had placed them. The Lord speaks strange 
but impressive words on this line, thereby settling all 
doubts. ‘ For they are gone up to Assyria a wild ass alone 
by himself.’* 

“We are told by Ezekiel that certain of the elders of 
Israel (not Judah) came to him. This took place one 
hundred and seventy years alter the house of Israel had 
been carried away captive, and while still in the place of 
captivity, for Ezekiel had not returned after being sent to 
them by God. 

“At this time he told them with reference to the man 
who set up an idol in his heart, ‘ Thus saith the Lord, I 
the Lord will answer him by myself, I will (first) make 
him a sign and a proverb, and (afterwards) cut him ofi' 
from the midst of MY PEOPLE. ’f The Lord still calls 
them HIS PEOPLE, and this terrible punishment for 
idolatry would soon make the worship of idols and the in- 
termarriage with the heathen cease among the remnant. 

“We have now come to the time when Israel was to be 
m'ade free ; the time when the Lord said, ‘I will bring 

•Hosea 8; g. tEzek. 14: 1-9. 


958 


A COyENANT KEPT. 


them out of the land of the country where they sojourn.’* 

“ The years of their captivity and sojourn are ended. 
^ They had eaten bread by weight and water by measure,’ 
according to Ezekiel’s prophecy. ‘ After the manner of 
Egypt’ spoken of by Isaiah, these years have been numbered 
with the past. The great gathering was soon to take place 
for the start to some unknown land. All the rebels who 
had served idols were cut oft'. ‘Israel is swallowed up: 
now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel where- 
in is no pleasure.’! 

“ Assyria had swallowed Israel up, and when the Lord 
had said that the Gentile nations of Assyria, Media and 
Babylon would find no pleasure in them, we know that it 
was His hand that had brought it all about. 

“ There was enough knowledge of God among the Asi- 
atic monarchies to understand that the awful scourge of 
the Scythians that had almost swept the nations from the 
face of the earth was but the hand of Israel’s God punish- 
ing them for their sins and for taking Israel captive ; for 
there was no part of the Assyrian Empire but was swept 
by them in the same awful manner, except the walled cit- 
ies and mountain fastnesses. The whole of Palestine, 
Syria, and the greater part of Egypt also, were devastated 
by them ; yet up to this time none of the nations of these 
lands knew that such a people existed. | 

“ Now would not the Lord be able to show the Assyri- 
ans and all the nations that His hand was in it? If the 
men of Israel who would not worship idols were exempt- 
ed from this terrible scourge, would not that be enough? 
So we read : ‘ Thy children shall make haste, thy destroy- 
ers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee ; 
among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. ’§ 
Thus they were left alone ‘ as a wild ass.’ ‘ For they (the 
Assyrians) that swallowed thee up shall be driven far away’ 
by the Scythians. 


*Ezek. 20: 33-38. tHosea 8: 9. tis. 10: 14; also Ezek. 31: 12. §Hosea 8: 8. 


A COVENANT KEPT. 


159 


‘ Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty 
shall be taken aw^ay, and the prey of the terrible shall be 
delivered ; for I will contend with him that contendeth 
with thee, and I will save thy children.’ 

‘Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and de- 
clare it in the isles afar off, and say. He that scattered Is- 
rael will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his 
dock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed 
him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.’* 

‘They had hired among the nations, but now I will 
gather them.’f 

“ While no doubt a certain time would be taken up in 
the gathering of scattered Israel into one flock by the Lord, 
there would be some principal thought in the mind of the 
exiles as they came one by one or in companies to the fold, 
the place of the gathering. As they gathered into that 
rocky, mountainous region, the supply of bread and water 
which was always weighed and measured out to Israel, 
would be made still scarcer by the coming in of the scat- 
tered ones. The ‘ unclean things’ they were compelled to 
eat in Assyria are thus explained. Therefore the motive 
of gathering together, the desire to get away from the land 
of their sojourn, was more than discontent, it was more 
than a desire for a change, or for freedom. No doubt it 
was famine, with all its horrors, that was the first cause of 
the determination of Israel to emigrate from Assyria. The 
Lord makes the reasons very plain in the following verses : 
‘ I will also cause her mirth to cease, her feast days, her 
new moons, and her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts, 
and I will destroy her vines and fig trees, whereof she hath 
said. These are my rewards that my lovers have given me : 
and I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field 
shall eat them. And she shall follow after her lovers but 
she shall not overtake them ; and she shall seek them and 


*Is. 49: 25-26; Jer. 31: lo-ii. 


tHosea 8: 10. 


i6o 


A COVENANT KEPT. 


shall not find them : then shall she say, I will go and re- 
turn to my first husband ; for then it was better with me 
than now.’* 

“As the multitude grew in number so would their ne- 
cessities grow upon them. Therefore they said, Let us- 
‘ go and return’ (into Israel’s land). ‘ To my first husband 
(God), for then it was better with us than now.’ 

“ Thus the Lord had surrounded Israel with circumstan- 
ces with which no man had power to contend : vine and 
fig trees all destroyed ; the population in the surrounding 
country so wasted by the Scythian that ‘ the beast of the 
field’ had multiplied and ‘eaten up everything.’ Their po- 
sition could not be worse, no matter what foe they should 
meet. Thus was Israel’s remnant so hard pressed that they 
made a desperate resolve to try to better their position. 
Perhaps the inspiration that filled this multitude of Israel 
to return to Canaan’s land was the wonderful retreat of the 
‘ Immortal Ten Thousand Greeks,’ which occurred but a 
few decades previous to the time when the prophet said 
that Israel was to come forth ‘ from the land of their so- 
journ.’ If this small army that had defeated the hosts of 
the king of Persia in the very center of his dominions, 
could fight their way to Trebizond, although deprived of 
their leaders, in late autumn and mid-winter, amid terrific 
mountain precipices and the snows of Armenia, without 
maps or guides ; could force their way over every obstacle 
with no greater loss than the common casualties of war, 
over a distance of fifteen hundred miles, surely a ‘ multi- 
tude of men’ (so called by God), who were in just as des- 
perate circumstances as the ‘ Ten Thousand,’ could make 
their way to Canaan’s land, which was only^three hundred 
miles distant ! 

“The return of the ten thousand in safety revealed a 
state of matters within the Persian Empire of which the 


*Hosea 2: 7-11-12. 


A COVENANT KEPT. l 6 l 

Greeks had no conception. They believed that the whole 
vast expanse enclosed between the Black Sea and the Cau- 
casian mountains, Caspian Sea and Jaxartes on the one 
hand and the Arabian Desert, Persian Gulf and Indian 
Ocean on the other, were bound together in one single 
centralized monarchy, all of the resources of which were 
wielded by a single arm. They found in the confines of 
Media and Assyria that there existed independent tribes 
that set the arms of Persia at defiance. ‘ Once certainly 
held in subjection, these had fallen away from the declin- 
ing state and succeeded in establishing their freedom and 
their services ; if the king of Persia needed them, he had 
to buy. Therefore, judging of the unknown form from 
the known, might it not be concluded that the way ‘ out 
from this, the land of their sojourn,’ was made easy for 
Israel by God? With all the above facts before us, do not 
the difliculties fall far below the conception which Christ- 
ians have been accustomed to form of Israel’s coming forth 
from the land of their sojourn? 

THE GREAT GATHERING. 

“ ‘ I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will 
surely assemble the remnant of Israel ; I will put them to- 
gether as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of 
their fold : they shall make great noise by reason of the 
multitude of meni* 

“ The trumpet call of the Lord, come and assemble to- 
gether all ‘ye remnant of Israel,’ all of thee come \ All 
would be assembled, for it was the Lord that issued the 
call. He would gather them into the fold as the sheep of 
Bozrah ; this word means tribulation or distress. So that 
passage might be read thus, ‘ 1 will surely gather the rem- 
nant of Israel (not Judah). I will put them together as 


•Micah 2: 12. 


12 


i 62 


THE GREAT GATHERING. 


sheep that have been in tribulation and distress, as the 
flock in the midst of their fold.’ 

“ Josephus writes of the remnant of Judah who returned 
from Babylon as no more than a lemnant, but refers to the 
Ten Tribes who were at that time beyond the Euphrates, as 
an ‘immense multitude’ and who ‘never returned.’* Fre- 
quent mention is elsewhere made by the same authority of 
this immense multitude. 

“Isaiah also gives a proof of the marvelous increase of 
the Ten Tribes, which is but a touch, as it were, yet so 
clear, so bright, that we must know that God alone en- 
grossed it on the page of prophecy. We read, ‘ For thy 
waste and desolate places and the land of thy destruction^ 
(Assyria) shall even now be too itarrow by reason of the 
inhabitants^ and they that swallowed thee up shall be far 
awayf 

“ After the Scythians had driven the Assyrians far away 
and almost destroyed them, Israel’s remnant began to mul- 
tiply and their place between the mountains was too nar- 
row, too small for them ; of necessity they would have to 
spread out down the valley. 

“ In the course of another generation or more we have 
the same cry for more room. ‘ The children which thou 
shalt have after thou hast lost the other, shall say again 
in thy ears, the place is too straight for me ; give place to 
me that I may dwell. 

^ “ There was not room in the land from the first for Is- 
rael where the Assyrians had placed them. Therefore, 
most of the young and well favored of the children were 
taken as slaves by the Assyrians to the cities adjacent to 
this land of Gozan, as was* the custom of victors in those 
days. 

“ Therefore, we read, ‘ The children which thou shalt 
have after thou hast lost the other. ’| This is substantiated 


*Josephus, Chap. V, Sec. 23. 


tis. 49; 19-21. 


tis. 49: 20. 


THE GREAT GATHERING. 


163 


in the next verse, where it appears that the Lord had 
watched over these y^^ung Israelites, and that they had 
wonderfully increased in number. 

‘ Thus saith the Lord, I will surely gather the remnant 
of Israel ; I will put them together as the sheep of Boz- 
rah.’ Then when this gathering had taken place of the 
children of these scattered ones whom the Assyrians had 
taken as captives and slaves, the Divine Writer puts these 
graphic words in the mouth of those who had been left 
where they had been placed by the Assyrians, ‘ Then shalt 
thou say in thy heart. Who hath begotten me these, seeing 
I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and re- 
moving to and fro? And who hath brought up these? 
Behold I was left alone ; these, where had they been?’* 
‘‘The finger of God alone could thus write a hidden 
truth ; a wonderful chapter in the history of his exiled, 
scattered Israel. 


A NATION TRAVERS. 

‘‘ The strange spectacle of a whole nation on a journey 
has been seldom seen. Hard as had been Israel’s past his- 
tory, and the present surroundings, yet the morning of the 
start must have been a memorable one, an inspiring hour 
in the minds of all of the remnant of Israel. No wonder 
we read that ‘ they shall make a great noise by reason of 
the great multitude of men.’f We can almost see them 
gathering the women, children and treasures, and placing 
the most valiant men in the van to withstand any on-com- 
ing foe. We can see them placing the right and left 
guards to guard the columns, and lastly the rear guard. 
Scouts hasten out in all directions to give notice of any ap- 
proaching foe; each company is instructed what to do in 
case of danger, all possible means taken to guard against 
surprise. A courtmartial had been called before depart- 

*13.49:21. tMicah2:i2. 


164 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


Lire, and provided punishment for any who would show 
any signs of cowardice ; accordingly if it were proved that 
any man had acted as a coward, he was to be buried or 
smothered in the first bog or swamp they came to.* The 
many charges of the officers to the men, the instructions of 
the fathers to their wives and children, would make a ba- 
bel of tongues, ^ A great noise by reason of the multitude 
of men.’ They were coming out of the land of their so- 
journ, loaded with substance, for we read, ‘As I live, saitb 
the Lord, thou shall surely clothe thee with them all, as- 
with an ornament; and bind upon thee as a bride doeth.’f 
Truly this was ‘ after the manner of Egypt. ‘ And they 
spoiled the Egyptians. ’§ 

“ The Scythians could not gather the spoil of the moun- 
tain cities ; neither did they want the domestic articles and 
the many wagons of the Assyrians. These would be left 
for Israel; ‘ Thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all.’’ 
‘ And the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the 
land of Egypt.’ II So did Israel when they were taken 
out of the land of their sojourn. No great commissariat 
could be prepared for the host, for they had little to pre- 
pare ; ‘ bread had been weighed, and water had been 
measured ’ in the past. ‘ They were thrust out of Egypt 
and could not tarry, neither had they prepared themselves 
any victuals.’^ ‘ After the manner of Egypt.’ As in the 
day of their coming out of Egypt, all were gathered and 
ready to start on their journey, but to what land were they 
to go.? What was the inspiring watchword of that host 
on that eventful morning.? In the straightened circum- 
stances of that gathered multitude, what was there in this 
proposed journey, this leaving the land of their sojourn, 
to inspire them with a joyful hope for a better future.? If 
it was ‘ after the manner of Egypt,’ they would start for 

*An ancient law of the Cimbri and the Teutonic nations. 

tis. 49: 18. tis, 10: 24. §Ex, 12; 36. llEx. 13; 18, IFEx. T2: 39. 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


1^5 

Canaan’s land. Let the Lord speak and tell where and 
why they had proposed to go. 

“ ‘And she shall follow afte'r her lovers, but she shall 
not overtake them ; and she shall seek them but she shall 
not find them : then shall she say, I will go and return to 
my first husband, for then was it better with me than 
now.’* 

“ The fathers had told the story of the great riches and 
posterity of the days of old in Canaan to their children’s 
children, and this generation in their great extremity 
had decided to go back to that land which ‘ flowed with 
milk and honey.’ The cry would be: To Canaan! To 
Canaan’s land ! 

“ After the great gathering and the start was made to go 
back (as they proposed) to Canaan’s land, we find that the 
home route for a part of the way was made easy. For 
‘the highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth ’f in 
the land of Assyria. 

“ ‘ Upon this ruin shall the fowls of heaven remain, and 
all the beasts of the field shall be upon its branches. 

“ The fowls of heaven and the beasts of the field were 
monarchs of all they surveyed. They would meet with 
no human foe to harass or stop them. 

“ But in a journey of hundreds of miles with such a 
host, the bread they took with them was soon exhausted. 
No doubt they hoped as they journeyed to find a suitable 
resting place in the home of their fathers ; but in that hope 
they were disappointed. This journey in all things was 
to be ‘ after the manner of Egypt,’ and as the Israelites 
started to go to Canaan, yet did not enter that land on 
coming out of Egypt, but wandered for many years in the 
wilderness, so that they — the House of Israel — would not 
enter it on this journey^ for the Lord had said : ‘ They 

SHALL NOT RETURN. ’§ 


^Hos. 2: 7-12. 


tis. 33: 8. 


+Ezek. 31: 13. 


§Ezek. 7: 13. 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


I 66 

“ The valleys of the mountains leading from the land of 
Gozan run in a direction leading to the narrow waters be- 
tween the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, so that il the 
Ten Tribes returned to the land of Canaan (their first hus- 
band) in anything like a straight line, they would have to 
cross the Tigris and Euphrates and the mountain ranges 
along these rivers. 

“ To such a multitude, without a guide, mountain 
ranges and rivers would be barriers they could not pass, 
so the natural course would be along valleys. 

“When Israel fled out of Egypt and encamped on the 
Red Sea, they had unscalable walls of rock on the right 
hand and on the left, and the sea before them. No 
wonder when they saw Pharaoh pursuing them such a cry 
of woe and terror went up to God ! So when the rem- 
nant of Israel came to the sea, if they did not find precip- 
itous rocks to the right and left of them, they had come to 
the place of all others in the world where the various 
branches of the human family were struggling with each 
other for a very existence, who would permit no strange 
people to occupy any of their territory. If this journey 
were to be ‘ after the manner of Egypt,’ they would not only 
come to the sea, but there would come an anguish of the 
soul to the whole nation, as deep as when the cry was 
wrung from their forefathers at the Red Sea. ‘ Because 
there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away 
to die in the wilderness?’* 

“ A terrible anguish did come to them, such as only 
comes to the human heart once in a lifetime. After cen- 
turies of suffering, a hope had arisen in their breasts of a 
-change, a return to their first home, but now that hope 
was gone. ‘ And it shall come to pass, that when thev 
shall be hungry they shall fret themselves, and curse their 
king and God and look upward : and they shall look unto 


*Ex. 14: II. 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


. 167 

the earth ; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness and 
anguish.’* They looked upward to the heavens and down 
to the earth ; they saw no hope, no way opened, ‘behold 
trouble and darkness, dimness and anguish.’ What com- 
panion pictures of terrible wpe can be seen in these Scrip- 
tures ! Back from whence they came, they could not go ; 
to stay where they were could not be. ‘ Behold I will 
hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she 
shall not find her paths ’t that they had gone to seek. The 
wall and the. thorns were both placed there by the Lord. 
The old paths by which they used to tread the way to the 
house of God at Jerusalem, their feast days, new moons, 
the vineyards, the oliveyards, the corn and wine of 
Canaan’s land, — ‘ the Covenant Of Works,’ — were gone 
forever from the House of Israel. 

“ There was another mission for them : they were to be 
brought into ^ the bond of the covenant. ’j ‘ Therefore, 
thus saith the Lord, bind up the testimony, seal the law 
among my disciples.’§ He would hide Plis law from 
them for a time. ‘ And they shall be driven to darkness, ’1| 
where is no law, no testimony, no religion. Thus we find 
Israel started on a journey of disappointment, trouble, 
anguish and darkness. It was when they came to the sea 
that this trouble and dimness came upon them. It was 
this trouble and anguish that caused them to ‘ fret,’ to 
‘ curse their God and their king.’ No wonder, for their 
fond hopes for the happy ending of this journey were sud- 
denly cut off, and they stood face to face with utter anni- 
hilation. Just the time for the Lord to come to their 
help ! 

“ When the children of Israel came to the waters of 
the Red Sea in their flight from Egypt, God commanded 
Moses, saying : ‘ Speak unto the children of Israel that 
they go forward.’ So now when they come to the shores 


*Isa. 8 : 21. 


tHos. 2: 6 . 


JEzek. 20: 37. 


§sa. 8: 16. 


lllsa. 8 : 22. 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


1 68 

of the Bosphorus he gives them the command to depart, 
saying : ‘ Arise and depart, this is not your rest : because 
it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore des- 
truction.’* The Lord said : ‘ They shall behold the land 
that is very far off.’f The far-reaching promise to Eph- 
raim that they would gather in the riches of the earth, ‘ to 
the utmost bound of the everlasting hills’ could not be gath- 
ered in the land of Canaan. Destruction was behind 
them ; they could not turn either to the right or to the 
left ; over the sea they must go, or this journey would not 
be ‘ after the manner of Egypt.’ In this place they could 
not stay. 

“ They saw no cloud or fiery pillar, but- the Lord was 
there. He hovered over them day and night, for he sends 
word to his ene.mies who said Ephraim and Israel were 
swallowed up : ‘I know Ephraim and Israel is not hid 
from me. ’I The Jew as well as the Gentile was pre- 
pared to say, and had said already, that the Lord had cast 
them off forever. At the appointed time He would ‘ bring 
them out of the country of their sojourn.’ ‘ I am a father 
to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. ’§ ‘For Israel 
hath not been forsaken nor Judah of his God, of the Lord 
of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the 
Holy One of Israel.’ jj After Israel had gone over the sea 
it seems as if a curtain had fallen over them. But it does 
not, for if ‘ after the manner of Egypt,’ when they crossed 
over the sea they would enter a wilderness. ‘ Therefore, 
behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilder- 
ness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give 
her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor 
for a door of hope ; and she shall sing there, as in her 
youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the 
land of Egypt. ‘And I will bring yon into the wilder- 
ness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to 

*Micah 2: lo, tisa. 33:17. JHosea 5:3. §Jer. 31:9. llJer. 51:5. HHosea 2:14-15. 


A NATION TRAVELS. 1 69 

face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the land of 
Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.’* 

“We have now seemingly lost all trace of them, in 
Scripture ; but by Scripture we are taught to look for a 
people whose ancestry was to be hidden ; they could not 
FIND THEIR OLD PATHS, and no trace of their old Hebrew 
language was to be retained by them. ‘For with stam- 
mering LIPS and with another tongue will he speak to 
this people. ’t They were not to be called Israel, ‘ and 
thou shalt be called by a new name which the Lord 

SHALL NAME.’! 

“ To Judah the Lord said, ‘ Ye shall leave your name 
for a curse unto my chosen people : for the Lord God 
shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name.’§ 
Judah left their name, Hebrews, Christ Killers^ a curse 
to Israel His chosen^ while His servants, Israel, would be 
called by another naijte. 

‘‘ Then we must look for a people whose history will 
fulfil the many prophecies in God’s Word respecting Is- 
rael, as history must conform to prophecy, for ‘ The 
strength of Israel will not lie nor repent.’ || We read of a 
second return to the land of Canaan in which Judah and 
Israel were to return together out of the land of the 
north. 

“ ‘ In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the 
house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the 
land of the north, to the land that I have given as an in- 
heritance unto your fathers. Behold, the days come, saith 
the Lord, that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth 
that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of 
Egypt ; but the Lord liveth, that brought up the children 
of Israel from the land of the north. ‘ The remnant of 
Israel, behold, I will bring them up out of the north coun- 

*Ezek. 20: 35-36. tis. 28: II. tis. 62: 2. §Is. 65: 15. 

Jli Sam. 15: 29. IfJer. 3: 18; 16: 14-15- 


170 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


try.’* Therefore after they crossed the sea they must have 
gone north. Having gone north into the wilderness we 
shall find them there, although the land is not now a wild- 
erness. Because, • Thus saith the Lord ; And my people 
shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure resting 
places. ’t This language is conclusive, ‘ sure dwelling 
places.’ Israel was on trial while in the land of Canaan, 
and they were removed because they did not keep the law ; 
they were only sojourners in Assyria, therefore their dwell- 
ings were not sure. But now, ‘ Thus saith the Lord, The 
people which were left of the sword found grace in the 
wilderness ; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.’| 

‘ Found grace,’ — found the love and favor of God in the 
wilderness, even Israel (not Judah), whom the Lord went 
to cause him X.orest.'' ‘Then at last they had found rest 
in the northern wilderness after their long journey from 
beyond the river in the land of Gozan. The bonds of the 
proud Assyrian were indeed broken. Never again would 
any heathen nation bear rule over them§ or spoil them. 
Never again would the ‘ Lord forsake His people.’ 1| 

“ Historians tell us, that when the great Roman Em- 
pire ‘ was breaking in pieces all the kingdoms of the 
earth,’ sziddenly there appeared from out the northern 
wilderness of the then existing borders or bounds of the 
Roman Empire a nation on wheels. They appeared as 
a nation in znotion^ seeking a home^ having their wives 
and families and domestic goods with them. To these peo- 
ple the Romans gave the name of ‘the terrible Cirnbri,’" 
because of their strange, irresistible mode of warfare. 
‘ They came like the lightning, and went like the light- 
ning.’ 

“ They sent their soldiers out to the front to battle with 
such fierceness and swiftness as to carry everything before 
them ; and then retired or retreated with such remarkable 


*Jer. 31: 7-8. 


tis. 32; 18. 


tier. 31: 2. 


§Jer. 30: 8. 


llJer. 51: 5. 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


celerity that no Roman army could follow or overtake 
them ; and again appear at some otlier point, with the 
same strange methods of attack and retreat, carrying off 
much spoil. If they were such a terror to the Roman 
legions, what would they be to the Lapps and Finns, or to 
the Celts of that day ? 

‘‘ They gave no history of themselves, had no communi- 
cation with any people only as history found thetn peer- 
ing down into the Roman Empire from out the cold north- 
ern forests, seeking for spoil and homes. This is in exact 
accord with Scripture, no people understood their lan- 
guage, ‘ a stammering tongue.’ They had lost their 
path ; their religion was almost a nonentity ; they had no 
images tior idols; if they worshipped anything it was the 
sun ; they had no ancestry of which to boast ; they told of 
no country from which they came ; they were, according 
to Scripture, as ‘ a beacon on the top of a mountain and 
an ensign upon a hill.’* If it could be proved by histo- 
rians who the Cimbri were, and from whence they came, 
that fact would be sufficient to prove that the Cimbri were 
not Israel ; because the latter were to be ‘hidden,’ they 
were to be ‘called by another name. ’f We read in the 
‘ Encyclopiedia Britannica’ that the Cimbri were an 
ancient nation of unknown affinity, which was one of the 
most formidable enemies of the Roman Empire, and has 
proved one of the most difficult subjects of the historical 
investigator. Two great questions have claimed the at- 
tention of the historians in regard to this people ; but to 
neither of them has anything like a definite answer been 
obtained. 

“ The first has to do with their local habitations, and 
the second with their ethnological connection. That they 
were closely connected with the Teutons is evident ; and 
that the Teutonic at least were Germanic was for a time 


*Isa. 30: 17. 


Isa. 65: 15. 


172 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


regarded as certain ; but more elaborate investigation 
shows that this also is open to dispute, and can afford no 
support as an argument. 

“Ancient authorities give us no statistics, and modern 
research and discussion have done little but maintain a con- 
tinual oscillation of opinion. 

“Here is a remarkable fact. A people without a his- 
tory, without a religion, and yet so well equipped for war, 
and so strategical in their manoeuvre^, that ev^en the 
Roman legions could make no progress in subduing them. 
Yet from the wilderness they came, where no civilization 
or advance was possible, for all the people around the 
Baltic were Lapps and Finns, simple, peaceful people, en- 
tirely different from these Cimbri, so fierce and warlike. 
Their coming was ‘ a great migration of people from some 
part of Asia, who had a degree of civilization, of family 
life, a mode of warfare unknown to any other people.’ 

“ When they started, ‘ allured by God,’ they would ex- 
pect to be pursued ; they would expect to meet with ene- 
mies in the way they went, that they knew not. They 
had taken all the dreadful future into their own hands ; 
they had the still more dreadful past to remember ; they 
had started iox freedom and a home in some other land. 
No wonder they became fierce and impetuous, always 
alert in their actions ; no wonder they were determined to 
leave no trace of what they had been, of who they were 
and from where they had come. Too much shame had 
already been in the history of the fathers for them to tell 
their children. By common consent the parents would do 
everything they could to hide all from their posterity. 

“ Looking at Israel from this standpoint, is it any won- 
der they were the fiercest people on the face of the earth? 
Even so fierce that the cruel Roman called them the 
‘ Terrible Cimbri.’ Any individual placed in the same 
circumstances would act just as this nation did ; and if one 
individual why not a nation ? 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


175 


“ It was liberty or deaths but never slavery and life. 
If a Cimbri proved a coward he was taken to the nearest 
bog or swamp and smothered. 

“ All this has been written from a human view of their 
actions, and yet God overruled every part of their history 
to carry out His wonderful plans. The Lord of Hosts 
ordered the battle, and even foretold in Scripture of this 
wonderful epoch in Israel’s history. ‘ And the remnant 
of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of 
many people as a lion in the midst of the beasts of 
THE FOREST, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep : 
who if he go through, treadeth down, and teareth in 
pieces, and none can deliver.’* It is needless to comment 
further on this Scripture. The Jews (Judah) have never 
yet fulfilled this prophecy ; it was to be fulfilled then in 
Israel’s remnant, the Cimbri. Although historians cannot 
find out where the Cimbri came from, as they first ap- 
peared in northern Europe, yet they have recorded that 
they found a people on the shores of the Baltic and of 
Denmark, speaking the same language, and that their set- 
tlements seemed new ; or, to describe them better, they 
seemed ‘ more like keepers at home, abiders by the stuflV 
There can be little doubt that the most restless of these 
people travelled all the way across Europe until they came 
to the waters of the Baltic and there rested. They no 
doubt travelled all that distance, and finding the ocean a 
barrier, returned south, exploring the country until they 
came to the bounds of the Roman Empire, in the year 
19 — A. D., as historians record. 

“ This may all seem an impossible history, but God was 
the leader. He promised David that He would ‘appoint 
a place for Israel, a place of their own, from which 
THEY WOULD MOVE NO MORE,’t and ill getting to that 
land God promised to help Israel. ‘ Hast thou not 

•Micah 5: 8. t2 Sam, 7: 5-10. 


A NATION TRAVELS. 


374 


known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the 
Lord, the maker of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, 
neither is weary there is no searching of His understand- 
ing. He giveth power to the faint ; and to them that have 
no might he increaseth strength.’* 

“ But thou Israel, art m} servant, Jacob whom I have 
chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. I have chosen 
thee, and not cast thee away.’ 

‘ Fear thou not, for I am with thee : be not dismayed 
for I am thy God : I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help 
thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my 
righteousness. ’t This prophecy was spoken at least ten 
years after the whole nation of Israel was carried captive 
into Assyria. From the name Cimbri we have the name 
•changed to Teutonic races or tribes.” 

*Isa. 40: 28-29. 1Isa. 41: 8-9-10. 



• CHAPTER XL 


A PROMISED LAND GAINP:D. 

Harvey was at last able to go home. At the first oppor- 
tunity he attended a meeting of “Zion’s Watchmen.” 
Many were the kind greetings he received. He was de- 
lighted with the pleasing w'ords they gave to him, because 
he had succeeded, as they said, in very truth in identify- 
ing the Lost Nations of Promise. 

Mr. Randell said, “You have been enabled by God to 
interpret His promises in such a broad way, over and 
above anything we have ever read or thought of before, 
that we are convinced that God has made good all His 
promises and covenants unto Abraham and his seed. The 
sealing of the 144,000 of all the tribes of Israel at the close 
of this age, has now a clear meaning to us, that heretofore 
was a mystery. 

“ We have been taught very much by the Spirit of God, 
and yet by the knowledge now gained of this wonderful 
history, it is evident that there must be many glorious 
truths yet to learn before the story is completed up to the 
time when all things that have been lost shall be restored 
to the world again. 

“ I now see that there was a far richer, grander inheri- 
tance than the land of Canaan, promised in that covenant 
to Abraham ; it was to reach ‘ unto the utmost bounds of 
the everlasting hills.’ 

“■ Other lands than Canaan were to be given to Abra- 
ham’s seed ; and 4his part of the covenant God in His 


176 


A PROMISED LAND GAINED. 


wisdom, knew he could not fulfil if Israel were left in 
Canaan. 

The Canaanites were the most iniquitous people on the 
earth, and the Lord said unto Israel, ^ Drive out all the in- 
habitants of the land before you, and destroy all their pic- 
tures, and destroy all their images and quite pluck down 
all their high places. But if ye will not drive out all the 
inhabitants of the land from before you — it shall come to 
pass that I shall do unto you as I thought to do unto 
them.’* 

“ Israel would be driven out if they did not drive out 
the Canaanites. David’s complete repentance led him to 
think of Israel’s sin as well as his own ; he knew what 
God had commanded, and that the law had been broken 
he knew the punishment, and that it would surely come ; 
he had learned in many ways what ‘ Thus saith the Lord,’ 
meant. His heart was overburdened by the fact that by 
his own wicked life he had helped to make the driving of 
Israel out of Canaan a certainty. But the Lord gave him 
comfort when he thus humbled himself, and set his heart 
to serve the Lord and tried to make amends for his past 
life by building for the Lord an house that He might still 
dwell with Israel in Canaan. The Lord sent Nathan the 
prophet to tell him of His plans. ‘ He w’ould appoint a 
place (other than Canaan) for his people Israel and plant 
them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, 
AND MOVE NO MORE, neither shall the children of wicked- 
ness afflict them any more as before time I’f Here indeed 
has been a hidden truth ; the Canaanites had to be dispos- 
sessed ; they had held Canaan as their own for seventeen 
hundred years. It was not Israel’s land. The ‘great and 
goodly cities’ that they came in possession of were those 
that Israel builded not ; the vineyards and olive trees of 
which they ate the fruit were not of their planting ; the 

*Num. 33: S2-55"56. U Sam. 7: 10. 


A PROMISED RAND GAINED. 


177 


water they drank was not from wells that they had digged.* 
This affliction of Israel by the ‘children of wickedness’ 
was the determination on the part of the Canaanites to re- 
possess themselves of their own land. So the Lord prom- 
ised David that he would give Israel a ‘land of their own’f 
where no man had possession before, where there were no 
great cities or planted vineyards and gardens, — a new land 
from the hand of nature’s God. The Lord in giving this 
promise to David, was only repeating His promise to 
Abraham, that he should be the Dther of many nations, 
whose blessings should reach unto the utmost bounds of 
the everlasting hills.’ So Isaiah sees far down the river of 
Time, when Israel would come to take possession of this 
land of their ownj and he tells them of the state of their 
minds at this time, and what this land would be like. He 
says to Israel when on the way there : ‘ They shall be- 
hold the land that is very far off.’ ‘Thine heart shall med- 
itate terror.’ ‘Where is the scribe? Where is the re- 
ceiver? Where is he that counteth the towers?’]; What 
is the report of the spies? How many walled cities and 
towers of defence have the people in that new land? 

“ Experience is a good teacher. Israel had seen great 
armies in pursuit of them in their coming from Egypt ; 
they had fought with the children of Anakin in Canaan-. 
They found many walled cities and high towers in the 
land of Canaan. “They were compelled to lay their 
bodies down as the ground and as the street,” while the 
proud Assyrian went over them.§ All the people that 
Israel had ever met since they had become a separate peo- 
ple, were fierce and warlike. No wonder if their hearts 
should meditate terror when they found themselves well on 
their journey to an unknown land. Israel’s God has here 
a word of comfort for the posterity of his friend Abraham : 
“ Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper 

*Deut. 6: 10. t i Chron. 17: 9. JIs. 33: 17-18. gisa. 51: 23. 


13 


A PROMISED LAND GAINED. 


I 78 

speech than thou canst perceive, nor of a stammering- 
tongue that thou canst not understand.”* Thus did Israel 
(the Cimbri) find the Lapps and Finns a peaceable and a 
quiet people, around the Baltic Sea and Denmark. A 
few people would dwell there, not fierce and warlike, but 
simple, living in caves along the shore, with no cities or 
towers. In this new land Israel would have to build cities 
and towers of their own. They would find no one to levy 
tribute, no tax-gatherer. The land would be their own 
and no one would ever dispossess them. So we see Teu- 
tonic castles and cities rise out of the forests of the north- 
ern wilderness. They have Held this land in possession 
for twenty-two centuries. “ Therefore, will I save my 
flock, and they shall no more be a prey ; and I the Lord 
\vill be their God.’ * * * And I will make with them a 
covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease 
out of the land : and they shall dwell safely in the wil- 
derness^ and sleep in the woods.”f To many people in 
these modern times this picture is but a chapter in their 
own, but more particularly in their forefathers’ history. 
Yet it was fulfilled in the remnant of Israel in the northern 
wilderness of Europe, and in the building up of the deso- 
late heritages by the Teutons who ‘ have dwelt safely in the 
wilderness and slept in the woods.’ 

“ Those passages that I have just quoted and now placed 
as a part and as belonging to the hidden history of Lost 
Israel — the lost nations of Promise, were for many years 
familiar to me, as I have read my Bible. 

“ While familiar, yet until now they conveyed no mean- 
ing to me. They have been sealed passages to all of us 
in tlie past ; but now God has opened them to us. But 
there is much yet for us to learn, if there be any discrep- 
ancy between what is said in prophecy of Israel, and in 
history of the Cimbri and Teutons, then we have failed in 


*Isa. 33: 19. 


tEzek 34; 25. 


A PROMISED LAND GAINED. I 79 

our argument that the latter people are the lost nations of 
Promise. 

“To find this further proof we will have to review and 
compare prophecy and history of the Teutons down to the 
present day. All the principal features of Israel’s rem- 
nant fiom Assyria to this ‘ land of their own ^ was to be 
‘ after the manner of Egypt.’ Therefore, as surely as 
Israel came into Canaan, so also would they reach this 
land that was appointed and ordained of God as Israel’s 
own.” 

After Mr. Randell sat down, Frank Cowper rose and 
said : “ All these prophecies respecting a remnant being 
brought out of the land of their sojourn and placed in a 
wilderness must have had direct reference to Israel (not 
Judah), because they (Israel) were not to enter into the 
land of Israel. ' We know that Judah did enter into the 
land of Israel, they were assembled and, not allured into 
the wilderness, but brought to Jerusalem. After the des- 
truction of Jerusalem they were scattered into all lands; 
they had passed under the rod, but were not ‘ brought into 
the bond of the covenant.’ 

“ I have read some Scriptures that heretofore have been 
mysterious words to me, but now I can place them as part 
of this history of Lost Israel, as they were dwelling in the 
northern wilderness of Europe. 

“ The prophet with far-sighted vision sees Israel in the 
wilderness, and prays God to ‘ feed this people, the flock 
of his own heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood.’* 

“ ‘ Thou hast multiplied the nation and not increased the 
joy.’t Again the prophet sees the multiplying of the na- 
tion, but still no increase in the joy of the people. The 
Teutonic tribes increased very rapidly, but for hundreds 
of years it was a struggle for existence against enemies on 
all sides, beasts of the forests, hunger and cold, and al- 


*Micah 7: 14. 


tisa. 9; 3. 


i8o 


A PROMISED LAND GAINED. 


though they were like young lions tearing in pieces, and 
none could stand before them, yet they had no joy, in their < 
never-ceasing vigilance and constant moving to and fro. 
Having no religion, there could be no lasting joy. 

“ After a time there comes a change for Israel. ‘ They 
joy before thee according to the joy in the harvest, and as 
men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast 
broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoul- 
der and the rod of his oppressor.’* Here the Lord opened 
the eyes of Flis servant that he might look into the future 
of Israel and see the nation rejoicing because of the spoil 
of their enemies, because of the dividmg of the full har- 
vest given to His people by the Lord. Although the 
prophet knew that as he was writing, Israel was under the 
yoke of Assyria, yet in vision that yoke was broken, ‘ and 
they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid, ’f 
and ‘ there shall be showers of blessing.’]; 

‘‘ ‘ Behold I will allure her and bring her into the wil- 
derness, and will speak comfortably unto her. And I will 
give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of 
Achor for a door of hope : and she shall sing there as in 
the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came 
up out of the land of Egypt.’* 

“When the yoke of the Assyrian should be broken 
from off Israel, and they should be brought forth from the 
land of their sojourn ‘ into the wilderness,’ ‘ a place of 
their own,’ we read that ‘ strangers shall no more serve 
themselves by them ’f or oppress them. How truly this 
prophecy has come to pass! For the long period of 
twenty-two centuries the Teutons (the Cimbri) have been 
a free people. 

“ In the wars with this people the Romans were more 
on the defensive than the aggressive, as they could make 
no headway against these barbarians from the northern 

*Isa. 9: 3-4. tEzek. 34: 28. +Ezek. 34: 26. *Hosea 2: 14-15. tJer. 30: 8. 


A PROMISED LAND GAINED. 


l8l 


wilderness ; and up to this day there has never been a na- 
tion able to overcome them. There have been many civil 
wars, one section of the Teutonic race has borne rule over 
another for a short time, but never a foreign — Gentile — 
nation. 

“ ‘ The Roman armies came into contact with our own 
armies for the first time in the year A. D. 19, and it was 
the last time for several ages.’ 

“ For four centuries the Cimbri or Teutons were left to 
increase and multiply ; and instead of being invaded by 
the Romans who were the invaders and victors over every 
other part of the then known world, they made incursions 
into the Roman territory, and yet there was no one Teu- 
tonic power that could be a rival to Rome; but a number 
of independent Teutonic tribes were pressing into the 
Roman Empire from the north and west.’* 

“ Here is a strange fact in history; a numerous people 
of one kin, one tongue at this time, and yet divided up in- 
to many independent tribes or nations, each seeking a 
home for itself. In the third century we have a great 
jDovement of these tribes or nations, called the ‘ Wander- 
ings of the nations.’ tierein is another historical fact 
which has no parallel in history, wherein certain well-de- 
fined tribes which had grown into nations, wandered as 
whole nations, hither and thither, so that their final loca- 
tion and borders were quite different from those which each 
had occupied when they came into notice as invaders of 
the Roman territory. Thus the geography and nomencla- 
ture of the German nations in the third century is for the 
most part quite different from what we find in Cassar’s 
time. But the names by which they were known in the 
third century remain to this day. This movement then 
was directed by God, who had His ends and great purpos- 
es to be fulfilled in the Ten Tribes. He would have their 


♦Freeman. 


A PROMISED LAND GAINED. 


1S2 

positions relative to one another and to the surrounding 
nations, according to His wonderful plan for the ages. 

“In the fourth century we have a clearer history of 
these people. Such names as Saxons, Franks, Alemans, 
all of them great confederacies of German tribes, have 
come down to us from that date. 

“ Among the early names of the Cimbri or Teutonic 
tribes, the most important are Sueve (Swabians), Choth 
(Hessians), Cherusci, Semnons, Burgundiones, Hermen- 
ture, Marcomani, Gothones and Saxons. No other peo- 
ple had as many distinct tribes and yet all of one origin. 
In the changes of the centuries, these tribes have grown 
into nations. 

“ ‘ Behold I am the Lord, the God of all Flesh : is there 
anything too hard for me?’ 


CHAPTER XIL 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 

We must now go back to the spiritual work that Verna 
was laboring so assiduously to accomplish for the individ- 
ual members of her Sabbath school class. 

Verna had diligently sought to overcome the evil influ- 
ences of that farce, “ The Country School,” that had 
wrought upon the minds of Ethel Wood and Minnie Hall 
just about the time when they were about to give them- 
selves up to the service of the Lord. She had succeeded 
in getting them to attend church with her, and also in con- 
tinuing in her class thus fir ; but this change in their as- 
sociations was accomplished only by continuous, earnest 
pleading on Verna’s part. 

At times Ethel would say to Verna: “If it were not 
for the respect that we have for you and your Christian 
life, we would not go to church any more. We see how 
solicitous you are for our welfare, and we wish that we 
were like you, but we seem to be unable to reach out to a 
better life again. We confess that there is within us a 
dreadful longing for a renewal of our past life. Could we 
have stepped over the line far away from ourselves and our 
associates of the past, we should perhaps have journeyed 
safely home with you and others; but with companions of 
evil in that same company with us, it is an utter impossi- 
bility for us to embrace a pure life. 

“ No, Miss Rodell, you cannot know the dreadful power 
of that with which we have to contend. A besetting sin in 


1S4 A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


any person is always master while life lasts, at least while 
the individual is not born again, and this new birth has 
not been given to us.” 

“Your influence alone,” said Minnie, “ is all that keeps 
us awa}' from our evil companions.” 

Verna had never been sure until now that these, her 
two scholars, had traveled so far in the ways of evil. 

She had pressed them to give up the company of James 
Stalker and Andrew Burrows, two young men who were 
counted “ fast ” in their own circle of companions, but 
who held their place in church and society because their 
parents were classed airiong the well-to-do members of the 
church. 

Verna knew that the minister and the church gave these 
two young men a place in their midst and asked no ques- 
tions, although rumors came to them at times about them 
and others that were not good ; but so long as their parents 
gave liberally to the support of the church they paid no 
heed to anything that was said about them. 

Most women are uncharitable to their own sex. In too 
many cases they believe them to be what they ought not 
to be, when they are pure ; and in too many cases are 
ready to speak what they believe, when in fact they are 
often wrong. But with Verna it was very different. She 
was so pure and innocent herself that she was slow to 
think that any one else could be impure in their actions, 
unless they were utterly given over to vice. 

She now began to realize that there are different degrees 
in immorality. She believed that these, her two scholars, 
had a certain amount of liking for the two young men 
with whom they were so intimate; in fact, thev had sold 
their womanhood as surely as the one who solicits. 

Verna said to Minnie and Ethel: “ Are you not hap- 
pier when living away from your old companions.^ What 
about your happiness in the life hereafter.^ As you have 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 185 

lived and are now living, you cannot enter the presence 
of God or of His Son Jesus Christ. You can have no 
part in the happy, sinless, heavenly home.” 

“ If you could take us to some place where we should 
not have to fight temptation and evil that is but a part of 
our real selves, we might succeed,” they replied. 

I am not sure that I quite understand you,” said 
Verna. 

“ You insist upon our going to your church, do you 
not?” asked Ethel. 

“ Yes,” answered Verna. 

“ Well our companions are members of your church,” 
said Ethel, “and they have both boasted that they were 
members of the chuixh.” 

“ Will that church, that society, be an ark of safety for 
us. Miss Rodell?” said Minnie. 

With all of Verna’s knowledge of religion and per- 
sonal experience she could find no words to answer that 
question ; and her eyes filled with tears because the 
church blocked the way of every effort she put forth for 
the salvation of these two girls. She felt that if they were 
converted she could, with the aid of God, keep them in 
the narrow way, even if so much evil inffuence did exist 
in the church. 

At last Verna ventured to give an answer to Minnie. 

“There was a Judas among Christ’s twelve, and we 
need not expect perfection in any church. Let us look 
to Christ as our example.” 

Quickly Ethel answered : “We have not yet learned to 
love Christ, but if we did know Him, we do not suppose 
that we could be satisfied with the same easy kind of a life 
that we see most of the ministers and members of the 
churches live, while all forms of iniquity are about us on 
every hand. Feeling as we do, and knowing what we 
know, we can say that if these leaders are all right for the 
world to come, then so are we.” 


l86 A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 

“ We are not to judge our neighbors,” said Verna. 

“We could not appease our consciences by a partial 
change of life. Every energy of our natures must be 
given over for sei'vice to God in the change, or our lives 
would be even more miserable than now,” answered 
Ethel. 

“ How do you know you would not experience that 
change if you were to take the first step forward.^ ” asked 
Verna . 

“ If we did then we must seek for fellowship outside 
the chuixh.” 

“ Are not you making the faults of others too much of a 
stumbling-block ? ” 

“ We would be willing to enter into a marriage union 
for safety in the future,” said Ethel, “ and it would be per- 
fectly right, but we know that will never be, anil while 
we have never solicited, yet we have been, and would be 
solicited again even if we joined the church, and that by 
your church members.” 

Verna was unable to find any more words to answer her 
scholars, so she bade them good night. 

Every word they had spoken she knew must be true, be- 
cause all they had said w^as really a confession. 

She was in deep distress. Slie had gone to her pastor 
and told him of all these things, but he had met her with 
cold indifference. 

She compared his action like unto a phvsician or sur- 
geon, who from long usage of the knife had grown callous 
to the sufferings of others. 

She found herself measuring up the characters of each 
of the officials of the church, and she felt that there was 
not one of them that would give her any sympathy or 
help-. 

The old saying that “ Water never rises above its head,” 
came home to her at this time, and she said : “ Like min- 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. iSjT 

ister, like people. The officers and people are not likely 
to rise higher than their leader.” 

It appeared to Verna that God had given these two souls- 
into her charge to care for, to bring them safely home to 
His rest. But how was she to accomplish this much- 
desired result? To whom was she to go to for council? 
What did it all mean? 

When Verna joined the church her whole soul went out 
to its work. She assured herself that now she not only 
belonged to Christ, but that she had joined His Church on 
earth as well. But now that church was blocking her 
every effort to carry on the work of God. Not a work of 
charity or of caring for the sick, but the saving of lost, sin- 
ful souls from eternal perdition. 

Sorrowful as was her heart over the situation in which 
she was placed, yet a still greater surprise was in store for 
her in the near future. 

Three weeks after the conversation between Verna and 
her scholars as quoted, the officiary of her church found 
themselves $ioo short of the minister’s salary of $1,500 a 
year. As this was the end of the year some way must be 
devised to raise this balance. Various were the plans for 
some kind of a social entertainment in the church. It was 
at last decided to hold what they called a “ Sock Social,” 
so the following notice appearerl in the local papers : 

“A Sock Social. 

“The First Methodist Episcopal Church is always unique in the 
way of entertainments. The latest in this line is a ‘Sock Social,’ 
which provides for the measurement, at the door, of the foot of each 
person seeking admittance, and the admission fee is^ regulated ac- 
cordingly. 

“Two cents per inch is the rate of the sliding scale, with no- 
handicap. 

“This entertainment will be held on May 4th, at half past seven 

P. M. 

“Ladies wearing No. 8’s are in popular demand.”* 


*This advertisement appeared in the local papers in a town in the State of New 


1 88 A BRAND PDUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 

Verna read this notice with a troubled heart and eyes 
full of tears. This would likely separate Edith and Min- 
nie from all that was good forever. Some one would be 
called to account for the loss of their souls, and all the 
evil influences accruing from this entertainment and others 
of the same kind. 

Verna did not try to dissuade her scholars from going, 
although if she had taken an}^ part in it, it would have 
been to keep them from going. She decided to leave the 
matter with God, and let things take their course. 

With a burdened heart Verna went to the church social 
that night to see how the program would be carried out. 

When she entered the church what she saw, at the mo- 
ment, made her still more sad.i Then a righteous indig- 
nation took possession of her, so much so, that if she had 
had the power she would have driven every one out of the 
church and locked the doors. 

At either side of the door of the entrance to the audi- 
torium stood tlie two young men we have mentioned be- 
fore, James Stalker and Andrew Burrows. 

Each held a shoemaker’s measure, and along side of 
both were stools about a foot high. All who entered were 
required to put one foot upon these stools so that the meas- 
ure of it might the more easily be taken. 

While Verna and others were standing in the vestibule 
of the church an old lady, who was quite stout, passed in. 
She had no idea what a “ Sock Social” meant, and when 
James Stalker stopped her and asked her to put her foot 
up on the stool she said : ‘‘ What for.? ” 

“ So I can know how large it is,” said he. 

Why do you want to insult me in that way.?” 

“ Well, the size of your foot determines how much you 
will have to pay before you can be admitted to our Sock 
Social,” he answered. 


Jersey, and a sock social was held as advertised. This form of evil does not be- 
long alone to the M. E. Church ; other denominations are just as culpable. 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 1 89. 

“Well I can pay without having my foot measured,” 
she answered indignantly. 

With a little more respect he said : “ Well that is the 
rule the church committee decided to have carried out.” 

“Who were the committeemen who made these ar- 
range»nents.^ ” she asked. 

“The treasurer, Mr. Baldwin, our secretary, Mr. 
Stanhope, and Mr. Bamber.” 

“'Did our pastor know of this social and these arrange- 
ments.^” she asked. 

“ Yes,” said James Stalker, “ he was at the meeting 
when it was decided to hold this social.” 

“ For what purpose is this money to be raised.^” was 
the next question. 

“ To pay the balance of the minister’s salary.” 

“ Did the church vote to give him a hundred dollars 
more this year ” 

“Yes.” 

“ He now gets $1,500 a y^ear, does he not.?” 

“Yes.” 

With a great sigh that spoke more than words could ex- 
press, the old lady raised her foot upon the stool, and al- 
most lost her balance in doing so. 

“ Twenty-two cents for Mrs. Dunning,” he called out in 
quite a loud voice to the treasurer of the church, who sat 
in the passage ready to receive the money. 

Mrs. Dunning took from her purse fifty cents and almost 
flung it on the table where the treasurer sat, and then swept 
swiftly past him to her seat. 

She turned round to a lady who sat in the seat beliind 
her and said : “ I never was so insulted in my life. Such 
things are shameful.” 

As Mrs. Dunning passed in, Verna heard James Stalker 
say to Andrew Burrows: “ She has a foot like a young 
colt’s head.” 


190 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


“ Amen,” answered Burrows. If they all hail feet 
like her the price of leather would soon go up.” 

Then Ethel Wood and Minnie Hall came in, and their 
presence at this modern shrine of Diana caused Verna in- 
voluntarily to step a little closer towards the door. 

As Minnie came up to Burrows he gave her a look that 
made her drop her eyes, and then said : “ Put your foot on 
this stool, Minnie, so that I can measure it.” 

She hesitated a minute, while her face flushed, and then 
placed her foot on the stool. After he had measured her 
foot, he asked her in a low voice if she would go walking 
with him after the social. Without raising her eyes she 
signified her answer by a nod of the head. 

Ethel Wood almost danced up to the stool where James 
Stalker stood, and said, “ Don’t you know the size of the 
shoe I wear.?” 

I soon will,” he said. 

“ Are you so sure of that.?” she said, as she placed her 
foot on the floor again; but she quickly replaced it on the 
stool. 

Stalker said something in so low a tone, that Verna did 
not hear what he said, but there was an unholy look in 
both their flices, as Ethel’s followed Minnie to her seat. 

Then Burrows said to Stalker: Say, old boy, the feet 

of those two are not like colt’s heads, are they.?” 

“ No, they are dainty ones,” answered Stalker. 

As Verna saw and heard all this, a supreme indignation 
took possession of her; yet she determined to go in and 
see the entertainment that was to follow. 

Every one she saw enter submitted to this indignity, but 
she would not. 

She took from her purse a dollar note, and walking 
briskly past these two young men, gave the money to the 
treasurer, and went to a seat. 

When the doorkeepers saw Verna coming, neither of 


A BRAND PI.UCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


I9I 

them for one moment thought of stopping her. She was 
so different from others in her dignity. They knew that 
she would not submit to it, and as she passed them they 
exchanged glances, and in their inmost souls they were 
ashamed of themselves and all that were partakers in the 
Diana show. 

Her very presence and this her act showed them that 
members could give their money for this and other pur- 
poses without this shameful scene being enacted. It was 
a sermon such as they had never had preached to them be- 
fore. 

The entertainment of the evening consisted of some 
light negro songs, sung by the young men of the church, 
painted and dressed to suit. Also two dialogues that 
would be hissed down anywhere but in a church and arHong 
church members. A game of chance for a set of books, 
and an apron sale, completed the entertainment. 

Seventy-five dollars were raised by the measurement of 
feet, the game of chance, and the apron sale, leaving still 
twenty-five dollars to be raised to complete the $1,500 sal- 
ary for the minister. 

All this was in a building dedicated to the service of 
God. All this was to raise money to pay a man who had 
taken the most solemn vows upon himself to preach the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ to lost souls; vows that he would 
follow in Christ’s steps as near as he could; and do all 
things decently and in order. These thoughts and many 
others passed through Verna’s mind. 

Something told her that from this time Ethel and Min- 
nie would throw oft' all constraint. By intuition she knew 
that from this time she would not see them any more at 
her Sabbath school class. 

Verna mourned over these two lost soids as if they had 
been her own sisters, and yet she had a hope that some 
day she might reclaim them. But how was it to be done 
with such an evil influence existing in the church.^ 


192 A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 

She had dedicated the tenth of her income to the church 
of God, but the question came to her, Is this the 
church of God? And this question she could not shake 
off. 

How such a state of matters could exist was incompre- 
hensible to her. To whom could she go for comfort, for 
a reason ? She wondered if Harvey saw matters as she did 
and if he had formed an opinion on the great question. 
Verna knew of no one else to tell her sad story to and to 
seek advice from. She would seek an interview and ob- 
tain his advice, for she felt there was something more she 
should do to save these dear ones. To sit still and do 
nothing was certainly criminal on her part, when she knew 
that now they were traveling to that place from which 
they would not return again. 

Some weeks after the “ Sock Social” Ethel Wood was 
taken sick of typhoid fever. It soon developed into some- 
thing very serious and the doctor told her people that there 
was little hope of her recovery. At Ethel’s request Verna 
was sent for. 

This was the first notice she had had of Ethel’s sick- 
ness. 

When she came into the sick-room and saw what a 
change disease had brought about in such a short time, she 
almost lost control of her feelings, for she knew that death 
was near at hand to usher a soul into the regions of the 
lost, unless some change came to her soon. 

With a gentle touch she put her hand on Ethel’s head 
and said : 

“ My dear, you are very sick.” 

“Yes,” said Ethel, and burst into tears. 

“ What can I do for you?” said Verna. 

“ I do not know, but, Miss Rodell, they say I am dying,, 
that it is only a question of hours, and I am a lost soul ; 
lost, lost !” 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 1 93 

As Ethel said this, she sobbed and writhed in agony. 

“ Can you not now accept God’s offer of mercy ? He is 
standing with open arms ready to receive you. His offer 
of salvation is always open. He says, ‘ Come unto me all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you 
rest.’ ” 

“ He has been calling me ever since I met you and I 
have not given heed. God only knows how His voice en- 
treated me that night of the “Sock Social” to go to 
Christ for refuge, to go to my teacher for sympathy. I 
did not go. Another call of a different nature came to me 
that night. 

“ All ‘ resolutions, all good thoughts left me when 
Stalker asked me to put my foot on that stool. He had 
me in his pov.^er once more, and he knew it. I felt then 
that God had cast me off, for it was a deliberate act on my 
part. I cast Him off, and. Miss I^odell, I do not hear His 
voice any more ; but I do hear the voices of my evil com- 
panions ringing in my ears, and have ever since that 
night. Now as I am dying, I say it, that if I had known 
then what I know now I would have sold everything I 
owned, even to my mother’s diamond ring, that has been 
handed down for five generations, and have paid that hun- 
dred dollars myself before that ‘Country School’ or that 
‘ Sock Social,’ should have been enacted in the church. 

“ It seems to me that those two scenes were the price 
paid for Minnie’s soul and mine, and perhaps others. 
Every dollar of that money ought to burn into the soul of 
the one who received it as fire from the place of the 
damned.” 

“ Oh, Ethel,” said Verna, “ Do not speak so bitterly. 
Can you not let all those things go and make your peace 
with God ? ” 

“No. These thoughts fill my mind, although I know 
I am dying. God and Christ seem so far away from me 


14 


194 ^ BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 

now, while all these things, and everything that is evil 
seem so near.” 

“ Calm yourself, Ethel, and believe that God will re- 
ceive you.” 

I cannot,” she answered ; ‘‘ I made my choice of evil 
that night, and God took me at my word, and has now for- 
saken me.” 

• Verna never felt so helpless in all her life before, and 
she dropped on her knees and prayed more earnestly to 
God for wisdom, for His Spirit to save this soul, than she 
had ever prayed before. 

Then she said: “Lord, if you cannot use me to save 
this soul, send some one else, some one with a message of 
light to this perishing one. Lord, send Harvey to Ethel, 
to me.” And she cried with her eyes full of tears : 
“ Harvey, Harvey, God and Verna wants you.” 

She continued praying for about a quarter of an hour; 
then she cried: “ Harvey, Harvey, come to me before it 
is too late.” 

Scarcely had she risen from her knees when a gentle 
knock was heard at the door. 

When the servant opened the door Harvey was there 
and asked the servant: “ Is Miss Rodell in this house .^” 

“Yes.” 

“ Is any one sick, and does she want me for an}^ tiling.^” 

“ Miss Wood is sick, and I will see if Miss Rodell 
wishes to see you.” 

In a few minutes the servant came back and said : 
“ Miss Rodell wishes to see you very much.” 

Harvey was filled with great joy at the greeting Verna 
gave him.” 

“Oh,” she said, “I have just been praying that the 
Lord would send you to me, and now that you are here I 
can scarcely believe it, and yet I never prayed so earnest- 
ly in my life for anything as that you would come to me. 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


195 

But I will tell you all about it some other time. I must 
now tell you why 1 called you.” 

“ Did you call at two different times?” 

‘‘Yes, I did.” 

“ That is very strange,” said Harvey ; “ but excuse me, 
I interrupt you with my questions.” 

Verna told Harvey in a few words that Ethel was dy- 
ing, and that she believed God had cast her off because she 
had made a choice of evil some time ago, and, having 
made that choice, God had left her to perish. 

“ Has your minister called to see her?” 

“ No, he could not do her any good,” said Verna, with 
a look of pain that Harvey could not understand. 

“ She attended his church, did she not?” 

“Yes; but come, I am afraid we are now too late. 
Now that the Lord has heard my prayer and brought you 
here, I have no doubt that He has given you some mes- 
sage to Ethel that will save her even at this hour.” 

When Harvey and Verna stood by the sick bed Harvey 
said to Ethel : “ You think you are dying? ” 

“ Yes, this must be death.” 

“ Are you saved from the wrath to come? ” 

“No, I am not.” 

“ Do you want to be saved? ” 

“ Yes, yes, I do.” 

“ If Miss Rodell made a promise to you, would you be- 
lieve that she would keep it without giving you her oath 
that she would do so?” 

“ Of course I would.” 

“ Well God has made a promise to you. Miss Wood, 
and he has given you His solemn oath that He will keep 
that promise to you. Will you believe Him?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Well, the Lord sent me with a message to you .* ‘ Say 
unto Ethel Wood ‘ As I live, saith the Lord God, I have 


196 A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wick- 
ed turn from his way and live.’ Then He entreats you to- 
come unto Him, and says: ‘ Turn ye, turn ye from your 
evil ways ; for wliy will ye die?’ Do you not believe that 
even at this late hour, when God attests to Flis promise by 
His oath that He is more than willing to have you come 
unto Him and be saved?'’ 

“ Yes, I cannot believe that He would decei.ve me, or 
lie to me.” 

“ Christ has said : ‘ Come unto me all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden and I will giv'e you rest.’ You feel a 
mighty burden of sin, do you not?” 

“Yes.” 

“Well, He says: ‘Come unto Me with your burden 
and I will carry it for you.’ Do you not believe that your 
Saviour is in earnest when He says : ‘ Come unto Me? ’ ” 

“ Yes, but how can I come?” 

“M iss Rodell, hold out both your hands to this sick 
girl,” said Harvey. “ Now, Miss Rodell, ask the sick one 
to put both her hands within yours.” 

“ Ethel,” said Verna, “place both your hands within 
mine.” 

As Ethel did as Verna asked her to, a light sprang into 
lier eyes, and she said, “ Is that what you mean by com- 
ing to Jesus ? ” 

“Yes,” said Harvey, “give your hands, your soul, 
your life and your sins into the keeping of your loving 
Saviour, who is waiting with open arms to receive yoiu 
Will you?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Will you do so now ? ” 

“ I will, I do,” said Ethel in a very weak voice. 

Then Verna, in a sweet voice, sang: 

“ ‘ as I am, without one plea, 

But that thy blood was shed for me. 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 1 97 

And that thou bid’st me come to thee, 

O Lamb of God, I come ! I come ! 

“ ‘Just as I am, thou wilt receive. 

Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; 

Because thy promise I believe, 

O Lamb of God, I come ! I come !’ ” 

As Verna finished singing Ethel repeated the last words 
of the verse, “ Yes, I come ! I come !” 

As she said these words, she closed her eyes, and then 
murmured, “ Wash my sins away, and take me as I am.” 
Then she slept for a short time. 

Her sisters and brother came in then, and she opened 
her eyes and placed one hand in Verna’s, and then looking 
upward said, Jesus, I come, I come,” and passed into 
the presence of her Savior. 

When Verna saw that she was gone she laid her head on 
Harvey’s shoulder and wept for joy, and said, “lam so 
glad that the Lord answered my prayer and sent you here. 
I believe she is safe home at last.” 

“ Let us praise the Lord for His mercy and love to her 
and you,” said Harvey. 

Together they all knelt down by the bedside and thanked 
the Lord for saving this soul at the eleventh hour. 

Ethel’s friends then asked Verna to ask her minister to 
preach the funeral sermon. 

As Harvey and Verna started on this errand of mercy, 
Harvey asked Verna to tell him about her prayer that he 
should come to her at this time. 

“ Some time before you came,” said Verna, “ I saw that 
Ethel was dying, and I tried to lead her to Christ, but I 
seemed utterly helpless. In the agony of the thought that 
Ethel would die unsaved, I cried to God to send some one 
with a message from Himself to save her. My thoughts 
led me to you and I said, ‘ O, Lord, send Harvey to me.’ 
Then I cried, ‘ Harvey, Harvey, God and Verna want 
you.’ 


198 A BRAND PDUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


“ I still continued praying and after a short time I was 
constrained to cry out again, ‘ Harvey, Harvey come to 
me before it is too late,’ and almost immediately after I 
was told that you was at the door. 

“ Although we are told that ‘ whatsoever ye shall ask in 
my name, He will give it to you,’ yet such a quick answer 
surprised me. 

How was it you came to this house You were never 
here before, were you ? 

“No,” said Harvey, “I was sitting in my room, living 
over again the hours I spent with you in the hospital ; but 
that did not satisfy me; your absence and silence seemed 
unbearable. A renewal of those sweet hours my soul 
craved for, more than I ever craved for anything in all my 
life. I said to myself, ‘ if there is nothing else but sepa- 
ration and this dreadful silence for us, I said that if it were 
possible I would have thrown off this earthly body and all 
there was of this life, and become your ministering spirit 
by day and by night.’ 

“ I was worked up to such a pitch that I felt I must see 
you, when I heard your cry of anguish, ‘ Harvey, Har- 
vey !’ I sprang to the window thinking some accident had 
happened and that you were hurt, but when I looked out 
there was nothing to be seen. 

The car I came here in was waiting at the crossing, and 
scarcely knowing what I was doing I took my hat and 
went aboard the car. 

“ Once on the car I made up my mind that I would gO’ 
to your home and see what was the matter; your cry was 
so full of distress I felt I must see what caused it. 

“ The car had stopped opposite Ethel’s house to let some 
passengers off when I heard your cry again, ‘ Harvey, 
Harvey ! ’ It was so near this time that I sprang to my 
feet and almost ran out of the car. I knocked at the door 
of Ethel’s house and found you there. Did you call 
aloud 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


199 


“ Yes, I expect I did speak quite loud, for 1 was in deep 
distress. It shows how faitlifully God keeps His prom- 
ises, and surely we ought to trust Him the more, and this 
should be a lesson to us to be faithful to all our promises,” 
said Verna, with eyes downcast and face flushed. 

Harvey took Verna’s hand as they walked along toward 
the minister’s house, and said, “God bless you, Verna ; 
there is not another woman in all the world as good and 
true as you are.” 

“ Oh, please do not say so, Harvey. I am not good ; I 
am only natural ; I am myself.” 

“Your truth is your life, and your life is your truth. 
Yes. you are yourself, and that says much,” said Harvey. 

They had now come to the Rev. Dr. John Houston’s 
residence. 

When Harvey and Verna had told him of the death of 
Ethel and of her last moments of peace, and her prayer, 
he evinced no emotion whatever. 

“ She was a poor, miserable girl at best,” he said. 

This came as a surprise to them both, and they looked 
at each other, but made no reply to his remark. 

“ Her people have sent me to ask you to preach the 
funeral sermon,” said Verna. 

“ I cannot do so. I am making preparations to go away 
on a two months’ vacation, and I need all my time to get 
ready.” 

“She has attended our church for several }ears,” said 
Verna. 

“ Yes, I know she has, but she never did much to sup- 
port it,” said the minister. 

“ Then what am I to do ” asked Verna. 

“ I do not know,” was all the answer he made. 

As they went from the minister’s house Harvey said to 
Verna : “I will ask the pastor of my church to take 
charge of the funeral and preach a sermon.” 


200 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


“You are very kind,” said Verna. “lam sure I did 
not know what to do. There are some things I would 
like to talk to you about; some things I do not under- 
stand, but we will have to wait till some other time.” 

As Verna bade Harvey “ Good evening,” he said : “ I 
will come and let you know about the arrangemehts for 
the funeral.” 

When Harvey called again that evening to tell Verna 
about the time of the funeral he had a painful story to tell 
her. 

“ Well, I called to see the Rev. Mr. Stanhope, and he 
says that he never preached a funeral sermon outside of 
his own charge unless he was paid for it. So I asked him 
what he charged, and he said : ‘ Ten dollars.’ ” 

“ And what did you say.^ ” 

“ For your sake, I told him I would give it to him.” 

“ I am not sure but that I would be as well satisfied 
without a sermon or service as to have one from such a 
source.” 

“It was a surprise to me,” said Harvey, “but he ex- 
cused himself by saying it had become quite a common 
thing.” 

“ God charged the Hebrew priests with cupidity when 
He said He had no pleasure in them, and asked them ; 

‘ Who is there even among you that would shut the doors 
of my house for nought.^ neither do ye kindle a fire on 
mine altar for naught.’* 

“ I am loth to say it, but it does seem as if history were 
repeating itself among our priests,” said V^erna. “ Facts 
have forced themselves on me lately, that have caused me 
to speak in this way. It is a painful subject to me.” 

A strange mixture of joy and sorrow filled the hearts of 
these two congenial spirits. They were glad that God 
had used their humble efforts to save a soul, and to admin- 


*Mal. i: lo. 


A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. 


201 




ister to her remains the last sad rites. But the perplexing 
thought was forced upon them both, that unless their 
pecuniary interests were advanced in all they did, their 
own shepherds had ceased to do the work of the Master 
for fallen humanity. 



CHAPTER XIII. 


THE STANDARD BEARERS OF THE NEW COVENANT. 

At the next meeting of Zion’s Watchers Harvey opened 
the discussion by quoting the words of Christ: “ Did you 
never reaci in the Scriptures, ‘ The stone which the build- 
ers rejected the same has become the head of the corner.?^ 
It is very clear to my mind that this was a plain prophecy 
that Christ would be rejected by Judah, His own tribe, 
that He would be crucified as a malefactor, and when that 
terrible act was carried out by them, that afterwards, of 
course, they would never preach the Gospel of the King- 
dom, although in Him Paradise was restored. 

“ Christ knowing all thi?,, said : ‘ Therefore say I unto 
you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and 
given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.’* Christ 
knowing that Judah would reject His Gospel and crucify 
Him, said : ‘ I have a baptism to be baptized with, and 
how am I straitened till it be accomplished.’! This bap- 
tism was His crucifixion, and the straitened circumstances 
that He was then in were that the great work of estab- 
lishing the kingdom of God on earth was at a standstill 
until He had this baptism conferred upon Him. 

“ While the men of Judah had been the only represen- 
tative church on earth for centuries, yet after they had cru- 
cified Christ the kingdom of God was to be taken from 
them, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof. 


*Math. 2i: 42, 43. 


tLuke 12: 50. 


STANDARD BEARERS OF THE NEW COVENANT. 20 ;^ 

“ But, we ask, Who was that nation? Christ tells us- 
when He says : ‘‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep 
OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEI..’* 

“ This makes it very clear that lost Israel was the fav- 
ored nation to whom the Kingdom of God was to be given, 
according to the words of Christ. If Christ were sent of 
the Father on a s fecial 7nission^ and He declared what 
that mission was, we may believe Him, for He’ says : ‘ I 
came to do the will of the Father.’ And ‘ The will of the 
Father’ was, that He be sent only unto the ‘ lost sheep of 
the house of Israel.’ He returned to the Father, but left 
a mission to the nation that would bring forth the fruits 
thereof. The nation that would bring forth the fruits, 
Christ said, would be lost Israel. Lost? Then shall we 
not look for that nation in a people who, of all others, have 
brought forth the required fruits ; a nation that would 
begin by first laying the chief corner-stone, Christ Jesus,, 
whom Judah had rejected — a people who would first build 
themselves into the great temple, — and then seek to fit all 
the world in afterward. 

“ The history of the House of Israel up to this time was 
that they had been ’-drive}! into darknessi’^ They were 
to be brought from the land of their sojourn ‘ into the wil- 
derness of the people. ’I 

“ So we find Israel in Christ’s time in the northern wil- 
derness of Europe ; they had no knowledge of the bless- 
ings that God had in store for them, although they were 
even then living in the fulfillment of prophecy. The 
great nation that had been placed between them and the 
land of Canaan was the nation of whom it was prophe- 
sied, it should ‘ break all nations in pieces, ’§ ‘ for in 

Europe, Asia and Africa there was but one vast empire.’ ||. 

“ Israel had no communication with any people, no 

•Math. 15: 24. tisa. 8: 22. +Ezek. 20: 35. §Dan. 7: 23. 

IID’Aubigne’s History, page 7. 


204 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


knowledge of the birth^ life or death of Christ, although 
His mission on earth was fraught with such vast import to 
•them. This strange chapter in Israel’s history was all of 
the Lord’s doing. 

The Roman army came in actual contest with our 
forefathers for the first time in the year 19 A. D. ; and for 
about one hundred years it was the last time.’* 

“ Thus it is evident that with Rome as a complete bar- 
rier between them and the Holy Land, Israel was in 

TRUTH LOST. 

“ But why was it God’s purpose to transport the whole 
nation to such a distance from the land of Canaan, so far 
from the civilization of the world, with such an insur- 
mountable barrier before them? 

“ The Lord would take them to a place where there 
were no temples, no images, no cities of Oriental magnifi- 
cence ; He would allure them into the wilderness, where 
they would dwell ‘ solitaiy and alone f 

“We see, then, that it was part of this marvellous work 
of the Lord to isolate Israel from all the world, from 
themselves, and keep them in utter ignorance of all that 
was transpiring. We see the wisdom of God in placing 
them in the northern wilderness. We see them with a 
language unknown to anyone, which in itself was the only 
sure way to keep them apart from every other nation ; we 
see them with such a strange mode of warfare ; and in it 
all is shown the infinite resources of God to carry out His 
own plans in spite of opposition from any source. 

“ God’s covenant in many parts up to this time had not 
been fulfilled to Abraham’s seed, because the time to fulfil 
it had not yet come in, in His plans and in the centuries.” 

Frank Cowper, who was a diligent student of these 
questions and also of God’s Word, then said: “Writers 
of modern times have been searching for lost Israel in re- 

*Freeraan, tMicah 7: 14. 


OF THE NEW COVENANT. 


205 


mote corners of the earth, each one selecting a different 
race; but in all cases they were obscure and few in num- 
ber. But God says of the remnant, ‘Yet the number of 
the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which 
cannot be measured or numbered ; and it shall come to 
pass, that in the place where it was said unto them. Ye 
are not my people; there it shall be said unto them. Ye 
are the sons of the living God.’* 

‘‘ ‘ Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the 
world with fruit.’ -j* Israel, when Isaiah uttered those 
words, were captive slaves in a Gentile land. When God 
called Abraham four thousand years ago. He said, ‘As for 
me, my covenant is with thee ; and thou shalt be the father 
of many nations.’ I 

“Many nations would require great territory as an in- 
heritance. How very little was the extent of the world 
known to our forefathers! But since that time, vast con- 
tinents, surrounded by mighty oceans, with great islands 
within their limits, have been discovered, greater than 
ever entered into the imagination of any uninspired mind, 
containing riches in storehouses, which could only be sup- 
plied by the Eternal God Himself. All this, according to 
prophecy, was to be given to one people, coming from 
one stock, one man, the friend of God. God, by the 
prophets, called all the pathless oceans, and the vast con- 
tinents covered by primeval forests and rolling prairies 
lying ready for the plough, ‘the desolate heritages. ’§ Here- 
in were contained millions upon millions of acres that 
never yet had been tilled. 

“ A heritage is a possession belonging by right to some 
one of His children. 

“ No wonder the world cannot understand that all these 
nations are the tribes of Israel ! No wonder that Israel, 
the Teutonic race, asks the question. How can these things, 
be 

*Hoseai:io. tisa. 27: 6. $060.17:4. §15.49:8. 


2o6 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


Then Mr. Randell spoke and brought in proof from 
still another standpoint that the Teutons are the Ten 
Lost Tribes. He said, “ We read of the ten horns which 
have received no kingdom as yet ; but have power with 
the beast for a short time, ‘ one hour.’ These are of one 
blood, with the same origin, and with the same purpose in 
view, or, rather the same course is laid out for them. 

‘ They have one mind.’ ‘ They,’ (for a short time) ‘ giv^e 
their power and strength unto the beast.’ Being very 
zealous on the side of the beast, they take part in the ‘ per- 
secutions against the Lamb,’ or His few followers who 
‘ worship not the beast or the dragon.’ But the time 
would come when ‘ the lamb would overcome them ;’ ‘ not 
by power or by might, but by my spirit.’ Not by the 
terrors of ‘ the Lion of the tribe of Judah ;’ but by the 
spirit of faith and meekness. 

‘‘ At this time all the world was in darkness, every door 
was shut ; all seemed to be lost. Then it was that Luther 
heard the proclamation in thunder tones, which came as 
from the throne of God : ‘ The just shall live by Faith.’ 

“ Once again God unfurled his banner of light in the 
midst of the gloom and darkness, this time to Israel, the 
lost nations of promise. This was her last '■overturn;’* 
she was now ‘ raised up,’ ‘ brought again.’ ‘ I am not 
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel ;’ ‘ the 
set time is come’ for Israel ‘to arise and shine,’ even at 
the time of this very darkness. f 

“We have seen the Romish church plunging its vota- 
ries into the deepest sloughs of iniquity which were possi- 
ble for man or devil to conceive ; so that it is called in 
Scripture the ‘ mystery of iniquity. ’| Just when all this 
‘ deceivableness of unrighteousness,’ was at its height was 
the set time when Israel was to be ‘brought again to 
Him;’ the tribes of Israel raised up as the standard-bear- 


*Ez. 2i: 27. 


tis. 60: 1-2. 


+2 Thes. 2: 7-10. 


OF THE NEW COVENANT. 


207 


ers of the new and better covenant. Israel was to take 
her place at the head of the nations, and be brought into 
the ‘ full light,’ into the ‘ Bond of the covenant.’ This set 
time was after the Gentiles had been visited, and a certain 
number taken out for Christ, — the ' Apostolic Church; 
then when anti-Christ had swept all away, — the time of 
the dark ages, then it was £^iven to the Teutons {Israel)^ 
which, was the reformation. 

“ ‘ Simeon had declared at first how God did visit the 
GentileSs to take out of them a people for His name. 
And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is writ- 
ten, ‘ After this will I return, and will build again the tab- 
ernacle of David, which is fallen down ; and I will set it 
up ‘ The ten kings’ were the Ten Lost Tribes of Is- 
rael ; at this time ‘ they would hate the whore (the Rom- 
ish church) ; should make her desolate and naked ; they 
shall eat her flesh (the revenues of the Romish church). 
For God had put it in their hearts to agree and fulfil His 
will, and give their power unto the beast ’t up to this time. 
When this great change should come, then the words of 
God would be fulfilled. In the tenth century the licen- 
tiousness of the papacy excited the indignation of Christ- 
endom, and the hatred of the Roman name was deep seat- 
ed in the hearts of the nations. ‘ The German nation in 
the year 1046, towered above all others in strength, and it 
was about this time that the emperors of Germany, filled 
with indignation at the enormities carried on by the Rom- 
ish church, purged Rome with the sword. ’| Israel had 
been nourished up to this time, and now she was head of 
the nations, and asserted herself as the head of the church 
as well. In the near future she would emerge from the 
darkness of the ages and shine with the true light that the 
Holy Spirit would shed into the hearts of Abraham’s seed. 
Germany took hold of Rome’s civilization, but destroyed 
her abominations. 


•Acts 15: 14-16. 


tRev. 17: 12-18. 


tD’Aubigne. 


2o8 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


“ The mission given to them by Christ was to ‘ go into 
all the world, and preach this gospel unto all nations as a 
witness/ The Teutons have filled ‘ the desolate herita- 
ges ’ of the earth, and become a multitude of nations, ac- 
cording to Jacob’s prophecy, and are yet bringing forth 
the fruits of the kingdom of God, a light to lighten the 
Gentiles temporally and spiritually. 

“ There was a rise and fall of the Gentile 
CHURCH. Paul was the instrument used to cause the rise. 
God said to Ananias, ‘ He is a chosen vessel unto me to 
bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and children 
of Israel.’* 

“ ‘ I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of 
the mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceit, 
that blindness, in part, is happened to Israel, until the ful- 
ness of the Gentiles be come in.’f 

“ There was a certain time, a certain state to be arrived 
at before the Lord would return to build up Jacob. There- 
fore the fulness of the Gentile church was in the Apostolic 
church, and the grafting in of Israel and ‘ this life from 
the dead,’! referred to the Teutons and the Reformation. 

“ Was not the horn in Daniel’s vision to make war with 
the saints and overcome them ? ‘ And he shall speak great 

words against the Most High ; and shall wear out the 
saints of the Most High.’§ History tells us that the saints 
were destroyed till there were none left, until the Wal- 
deneses appeared in the year 1173* The fulness of this 
church came in while the fourth kingdom was in existence 
and while it had rule over the world. 

“ Yet this first church, as a church, was wholly 
DESTROYED. There was a rise and a fall of the Gen- 
tile churchy and a rise and a fall of the nations who 
were the church; but no fall was ever to come to the fifth 
kingdom, when once established ; it was ‘ not to be left tO' 


*Acts 9: 15. 


tRom. ir: 21-26. 


+Rom. ii: 15. 


§Dan. 7:-2i. 


OF THE NEW* COVENANT. 


209 


other people.’^ The kingdom to be given to the saints of 
the Most High was to be the fifth kingdom, but the 
apostolic church sent forth its light, and was destroyed in 
the time of the fourth kingdom. Yet some claim that 
it was a spiritual kingdom that was to arise with 
Christ as the head when He arose; but this spir» 
itual kingdom, founded in the apostolic church, soon 
went out in darkness^ and remained in that state for 
eight centuries. The people who composed this apostolic 
church were a few gathered in from many peoples living 
on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. No kingdom has 
ever arisen from them. There was no unity, no national- 
ity represented in the converts of that age ; none of the 
descendants have retained a national existence ; and as the 
church of Christ they were obliterated fifteen centuries 
ago. 

“The fourth kingdom came to an end, but through the 
mercy of its conquerors the lives of the people were 
spared, when these Germans took Rome and held her in 
subjection. ‘ As concerning the rest of the beasts, they 
had their dominion taken away ; yet their lives were pro- 
longed for a season and a time.’! Then was the time that 
the fifth kingdom came in and took its place at the head of 
the nations ; although they are become many nations, they 
are still the head. 

“ The coming of Christ and the preaching of the Gos- 
pel to Judah and the Gentiles was one epoch in the his- 
tory of the church. But all the blessings of the church 
were to be swept away by the overspreading of transgres- 
sions in the Apostolic Gentile Church, as foretold byDan-- 
iel and written in history. There was to be an intervene 
ing feriod^ according to Scripture; that, history has told 
us, continued for eight centuries before the fifth kingdom, 

‘ given to the saints of the Most High,’ was to take its 


*Dan, 2: 44. 
15 


tDan. 7: 12. 


2 lO 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


place in the world.* The fifth kingdom was to come into 
power when the transgressors were come to the full, when 
the saints of the first church were ‘ worn out,’ and when 
‘ the abomination that maketh desolate had been set up.’ 
The people of the fifth kingdom would then take the king- 
dom from the fourth kingdom and would be so strong that 
they would overturn the fourth kingdom and subdue it. 
There never had been a more beautiful blending of a 
twice-told history of any people or nation than this, for 
the people who composed the fifth kingdom were not those 
of the fourth kingdom, as it was first constituted. They 
were only a part of the fourth kingdom in the closing 
chapters of its history, who eventually overturned that 
kingdom. 

“ The clay of the great image representing the Ger- 
manic element, the most plastic material, was but the type 
of the earth swallowing up the flood of waters that the 
serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman. In other 
words, it was the German nation purging Rome with the 
sword and destroying the overspreading of transgressions 
of the Romish Church, the abomination that made the 
world desolate. The earth helping the woman was the 
Germans coming to the help of the church, and saving it 
from total annihilation from the flood of abominations 
that the serpent (Satan) through his instrument, the 
Church of Rome, cast out after the woman, Israel. 

“ Thus the two feet and the ten toes of the image, — and 
‘ upon her head a crown of tweh^e stars,’ the twelve tribes 
of Israel, — goes to prove that the fullness of the Gentiles 
had come in the Apostolic church ; that the Teutons are 
Israel, the fifth and last kingdom.” 

Mr. Randell delivered these additional words, prov- 
ing that the Teutons are Israel, in such a strange, 
earnest manner, that every one who heard him was con- 

*Dan. 7: 26-27. 


OF THE NEW COVENANT. 


21 I 


vinced as much as he was that there was not any argu- 
ment of any weight that could be brought to prove the 
contrary. 

Verna had been asked to give the closing address at this 
meeting of “ Zion’s Watchers,” on the great question, 
“ Are the Teutons Lost Israel?” or “ To what extent have 
God’s promises to Abraham been fulfilled in the Teu- 
ton’s ?” 

The events of Ethel’s sickness and death had taken up 
much of her time and attention ; yet Verna entered into 
the study of that great question with her usual spirit and 
energy. History was one of her favorite subjects, and the 
very sight of a map, with the boundaries of the nations 
thereon, was a picture of beauty to her. 

Her last address which had been so full of pathos, — 
when she showed how God had planned the pathway of 
Judah throughout the ages, and how faithfully He had 
carried out every part of it, — was not forgotten by those 
who had listened to her stirring words at that time. So 
now each was anxious to hear her again. 

Verna’s words in the first address hadja deep two-fold 
meaning to Harvey, and he could not but hope that some 
more grains of comfort would come to him at this time al- 
so. He needed comfort, for he was sad and lonely be- 
cause he had no home and no home life. It required all 
the powers of his endurance to stand firm without mur- 
muring on the watch-tower on which he had been placed 
for so many years. 

The promise that he had made in the past now barred 
him from happiness in home life. He knew that if he 
would decide to break it and ask Verna to marry him, that 
she would lose much of her respect for him, and he could 
not bear the thought. He also knew that her sense of 
honor was so great she might even scorn him for asking 
her hand in marriage, when he would have to break his 
word of honor in so doing. 


212 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


Verna’s address was intensely interesting from the very 
beginning. She said : — 

“ A dominant race was needed to establish this fifth 
kingdom of Daniel’s visions — ‘ The saints of the Most 
High.’ Then when the Teutonic tribes were picked out 
of the many peoples that were part of the fourth king- 
dom, and used by God in setting up this fifth kingdom, no 
mistake was made. They alone had these two character- 
istics — the strength of iron, and the plastic nature of clay 
— needed to establish the fifth and last kingdom which the 
God of heaven was to set up. They were far superior to 
any other people, being hardy, persevering, and of a 
boundless energy. They were budding forth as with a 
new life, a people ready to ‘ break forth on the right hand 
and on the left.’* 

“ The great future of the Church had now been com- 
mitted to Israel, the kingdom of power has been given to 
them. The great onwa-rd movement of the world is with 
the Teutons as the mighty leaders of the advance. We 
see Anglo-Saxons, Hollanders, Germans, Swedes, Nor- 
wegians, etc., all coming together and filling up the waste 
places of the earth. We see Judah mixing with and re- 
turning to their brethren, the House of Israel.! So the 
mighty plan of the ages is being carried on ; the contest is 
being waged and will be until the second coming of our 
Lord. The human mind is bewildered with the concep- 
tion of the mighty plans of the great ‘ I am ’ in the far past 
being thus carried out in every age of the world. 

“ An article in Frank Leslie^ s Monthly^ by Duncan 
Rose, entitled ‘ Pride of Birth,’ goes far to prove that the 
Teutons are a race blessed of God and fitted to accomplish 
His wonderful plan of the ages. Such a place was proph- 
esied for Israel, “ Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the 
face of the world with fruit. Mr. Rose says in part : 

*Isa. 54: 3, tMicah 5: 3. ilsa. 27: 6. Isa. 54: 2-3. Is. 49: 20. 


OF THE NEW COVENANT. 


213 


* * * The whole of this Anglo-Teutonic race, it seems, is to 

play, as it has played in the past, an important part in Nature’s 
great plan for the survival of the best. That each one of those yel- 
low-haired, blue-eyed strangers, who with their wives and babes in 
their rough wagons, came marching into Germany, driving before 
them the black-haired and red-haired Celts, was a progenitor, or, if 
not that, at least a near kinsman to a progenitor to each one of us. 
Even then, when they were first known, they were noted for three 
things, the Roman Historians tell us — for tenacious courage and 
steadfastness in battle, for the respect, deference and reverence with 
which they regarded their women, and for insatiable land-hun- 
ger. They have lost none of these characteristics in their westward 
march. In time not only Germany, but all central and northwestern 
Europe to the low countries and the North Sea was overrun by these 
brave, woman-loving ‘land-grabbers.’ This westward march has 
been slow, steadfast, with no backward steps, and where they have 
once seized they have never let go. Many centuries have passed 
since middle Europe first heard their battle-shout, and many more 
have passed since they marched out of the woods of Germany, vic- 
torious over all enemies, to look for the first time upon the Northern 
Sea; but in the larger view of the historian, it is apparent that it has 
all been one movement, and that what is happening to-day on the 
other side of the Pacific is but the continuation of this westward 
march of the Teutons, who now have all but completed the earth’s 
circuit since first they came down from the ‘Roof of the World.’ 

‘‘ Many Bible students think that the kingdom of God, 
the kingdom of the Messiah, was established when Paul 
preached Christ with such effect to the Gentiles. History 
proves it was not. We know that Rome was the centre 
of that church. It had all the light of an age long looked 
for; it had the knowledge that the promised Messiah had 
come, the knowledge of His crucifixion and His resurrec- 
tion, and it had the teaching of the Holy Spirit that all 
this was necessary for the salvation of the world. 

“ The Gentiles had the full flood of the noon-day sun, 
the calcium light held by the Infinite God’s Christ Him- 
self^ but they went back into darkness. 

“ Israel being emptied of themselves, could look calm- 
ly over the mistakes of the past, the rise and fall of na- 


214 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


tions and of religions (not as the Hindoos or Chinese, 
who are filled with all the bigotry of which the Teutons 
were emptied) with a strong manhood in them, built up 
in that cold, northern climate, and finding within them 
that unsatisfied longing for food for the soul, they were 
just in that state to respond to the call of the Spirit, 

‘ whose right it was ‘ The just shall live by faith.’ The 
Teutons had embraced the Romish civilization, and had, 
at the last stages of the Romish church of the ‘ Dark 
Ages,’ been the promoters and supporters of the most tre- 
mendous fraud, the ‘ mystery of inquity ’ of all time. But 
it was embraced at such a recent date by the Teutons that 
there was no deep-rooted national or religious prejudice to 
overcome ; it was the opportunity that God had worked 
for through many ages; it was his victory over Satan and 
men, who had been in league one with the other. 

“When the Spirit of God is striving with the soul of a 
sinner to bring it into light, there must first be a convic- 
tion of sin; then a great giving up of evil works, a hun- 
gering after a new life, and lastly a complete emptying of 
the old self, the old ways, the old prejudices, before the 
new way can be seen clearly or entered upon. Who as a 
sinner has not had this experience.^ Who has not seen a 
soul under conviction and receiving the new birth.? So it 
was with this people ; they had been emptied of all the 
past. Temples, idols, nationality and country were all 
forgotten. They were now ready to give up this abom- 
ination, the Church of Rome, which they had helped to 
build, thereby being partakers in that ‘ mystery of 
iniquity,’ for by the very church they had helped to build 
up they had been ground down to the very dust. Yet the 
Teutons did not fall so low in morals as did the Romans. 
The ‘ten kings (ten tribes), who had received no king- 
dom,’ learned to ‘ hate the whore ’ (Rome.) DeAubigne 
writes, ‘ The licentiousness of the popes excited the in- 


OF THE NEW COVENANT. 21 5 

dignation of Christendom, and a hatred of the Roman 
name was deeply seated in the hearts of the nations.’ 

“ There was still a hidden fire within them, an inborn 
energy of old, and still retained, even if they had been in 
slavery. The inspiration to go into this far country and 
take possession of this strange land was a baptism anew of 
the fire within them, which nothing could ever quench en- 
tirely; theirs was a spirit of unrest not easily quieted. 
Hence their indomitable individual and national energy. 
Coming into the civilization of the Greeks and Romans 
gave them a lasting impulse, a thirst after a higher exist- 
ence for themselves and their children. The Lord had 
made His Word truth when He said : ‘ I will bring you 
into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead 
with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your 
fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will 
I plead with you, saith the Lord God ; and I will cause 
you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the 
bond of the covenant.’* 

“ The way that they had come into that northern land, 
and the struggle they had had for very existence in that 
northern climate, was a school from which they had grad- 
uated, stripped of all their weaknesses, both of body and 
mind. 

“ Thus they were graduates of the college of the King 
of heaven, with diplomas commissioning them to ‘ estab- 
lish the earth,’ and to ‘inherit the desolate heritages’ 
thereof, and to build for the Canaan above. How little 
advance has been made by the world outside of the accom- 
plishment of this people ! They alone have accepted this 
Covenant of Grace in its purity. With all this testimony 
before us it must be concluded that the fullness of the Gen- 
tiles came in the Apostolic Church in the years before the 
world went back into darkness, and gave way to the mys- 

*Ez. 20: 35-36. 


2i6 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


terious power and terrible corruption of the Roman 
Church. According to the Lord’s way of the past, of 
waiting until all hope was gone for man from man, when 
that ‘ mystery of iniquity ’ was at its height, then was 
God’s opportunity. He had brought Israel as a nation to 
the same point to which He brings an individual sinner, 
who is compelled to look to God for relief, for safety, for 
salvation ; who has tried all things else and failed to 
find the rest of the soul. So now the Holy Spirit taught 
Israel where to seek for that rest, and they had sought and 
found it. Some people must be chosen as the instruments 
and helpers of Christ because He had ascended to the 
Father. The spiritual and temporary blessings of all the 
earth were promised by God to Abraham, to Israel.* 

“ Then if there be no meaning in all these Scriptures 
bearing directly on the kingdom of Israel, outside of Judah 
and the Jews, God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob and to their seed have never been fulfilled. If God 
has substituted the Gentile races for Israel in all these 
many places, positions and trusts that we read of in His 
own Word, then God’s promises have not been fulfilled ; 
and the Bible with all its biographies, warnings and 
teachings^ its profnises and rewards^ its types and sym- 
bols of a better land, with all its diversity and distinctions 
of the previously written history of nations, and with its 
covenants sworn to in the most solemn oaths by the Most 
High, is the one stupendous fraud of the universe. 

“ Because if God (and let it be said reverently) would 
break one promise, then it would not be worth while 
trusting Hiiri in any other. If Jacob’s twelve sons are 
represented in Judah, or the Jews with the position they 
hold in the world, which through the law of works shows 
the way to a‘ better land beyond this life, and all the 
prophecies concerning the other tribes were but a fanciful 

*Gen. 22: 1-18. Gen. 49. Deut. 33, 


OF THE NEW COVENANT. 


217 


picture thrown out on the canvas of the ages, then the 
whole foundation and superstructure of what we read of 
in the Bible, of God, of heaven, of everything is an infatua- 
tion ; it is the one iniquitous mockery which never has had a 
precedent, which never will have a parallel. Why? Be- 
cause Judah’s well-defined history as prophesied, thus far 
has all been fulfilled. An important part of it, besides the 
crucifixion of Christ, was that Judah was to be given up, 
left to carry the old covenant of works, until Israel should 
have preached the Gospel to all nations, and until Christ 
should come again. To the other tribes were promised tem- 
poral blessings, great and manifold, as well as spiritual, 
increase of posterity with a glorious mission for them to 
fulfil, and a part in the great conflict that they only could 
perform. God cannot lie. We have His promise, with 
His oath to perform His promise, that Abraham would be 
the father of many nations. This promise was made to 
Abram without any conditions for him or his seed to carry 
out. When Abraham obeyed God and was ready to offer 
his own son Isaac on the altar, he (Abraham) had fulfilled 
all the conditions of the covenant between him and his 
God. 

“ It was then that God took upon Himself to say what 
WOULD BE His part of the covenant with Abraham. 

“ ‘ By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because 
thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, 
thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in 
multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of 
heaven, and as the sand that is upon the seashore.’* 

This was a first promise and contained much. As the 
generations of Abraham’s posterity came and went we 
have the full meaning of this first great promise, ex- 
plained and extended over the ages. As Israel’s seed in- 
creased their mission would also grow wider. 


*Gen. 22: 16-17. 


2i8 


THE STANDARD BEARERS 


“ Two thousand five hundred years ago it was in the 
mind of the House of Israel that they would be as the 
heathen, they would serve idols of wood and stone; and 
so they told the prophets of the Lord. Then the Lord 
sware unto them that they should not serve idols, that He, 
the Lord, would reign over them and bring them into the 
bond of the covenant, — the Covenant of Grace, wrought 
by Jesus Christ.* 

Many centuries have gone into the past, but the Lord 
has made His oath good; for Israel (the Teutons), have 
chosen the Lord and His Christ. The Lord has brought 
literal Israel into the bond of the covenant. We have been 
told that salvation is of the Jews (Judah). They opened 
the door to heaven by crucifying Christ. But salvation 
was to be carried over the world by Israel. ‘ I will place 
salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.’ 

“ God kept His covenant promise to Adam and Abra- 
ham respecting Christ, yet the seed of Abraham did not 
keep their side of the agreement with God. It was on 
the one side only that the covenant was kept, but it was 
kept. iHas the Lord not kept His promise to Noah and 
his sons.? Where is there a man to-day that does not be- 
lieve that God will keep that promise, and that the earth 
will never again be destroyed by a flood ? But have Noah’s 
descendants kept their part of the agreement, by keeping 
God’s commandments.? When God made a series of sol- 
emn promises and confirmed them by oath to a man, whom 
He deigned to call His friend, renewing them to Isaac, to 
Jacob, and many times to Israel through the prophets, will 
He not fulfil those promises.? Yea, verily. He has set 
Himself forth as the covenant-keeping God, no matter 
whether or not man has kept his part of the covenant.” 

Verna’s face glowed with enthusiasm all through her 
address. Although the way she had to travel in this world 

*Ezek 20: 32-38. 


OF THE NEW COVENANT. 


219 


was dark, yet there was within her a secret joy, known 
only to herself, and she took delight in showing forth 
God’s truth and faithfulness. 

She had been endowed with a bright, hopeful spirit, and 
it would be most natural to think that the strange circum- 
stances in which she found herself would soon have 
changed her joyous, faithful spirit into one that was- 
morose. But it did not. 

Many times she wondered why she was kept back from 
enjoyment in the chief attribute of her being. That many 
others had the same trials and the same thoughts, she had 
no means of knowing, but while she longed with a 
supreme desire for an unbroken fellowship with a kindred 
spirit, yet she did not become sullen or gloomy. In fact, 
‘‘ Faithfulness^^ became her watchword. 

As she finished her address she looked into the face of 
every one in the room and said : “ God has given a mes- 
sage to me this night. He says to us all, ‘ Be thou faith- 
ful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.’* 

“ My dear friends,” she said, “God has shown to us 
how He has kept His covenants with the House of Judah 
and the House of Israel, extending over thousands of 
years. Then our part is to trust Him. 

“ No matter how sorely we are tried and tempted, let 
us be faithful, even should our sufferings result in prema- 
ture death. The crown that will be given to us on that 
day will be a full recompense for any cross we may have 
to carry here. Let us trust Him when He says: ‘They 
that sow in tears shall reap in joy.’ ” 

Then as she sat down her e};es sought Harvey’s, and 
he saw from the light in them a two-fold promise — 
“ I will be true and faithful to God and also to my heart’s 
mate.” 


•Rev. 2: 10. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 

The satisfactory conclusion had thus been arrived at by 
Zion’s Watchers that the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel are 
identified in the Teutons. So the next question that con- 
fronted them, was, “ Can we single out any one tribe and 
call them by name.^” 

For the weeks intervening between the meetings, each 
one diligently sought light and truth from God’s word on 
this and kindred subjects, and so far they had been greatly 
benefitted, and each one felt that they were glorifying God 
in what they had found, or rather, as Verna said, “what 
God was pleased to show to them.” It was with the deep- 
est humility that each one gave praise to God that He was 
thus opening up to them mighty truths that had long been 
hidden concerning the house of Israel. 

They believed that in all the past it had been as the 
Lord had said to Daniel, the prophet, “ Shut up the 
words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end.”^ 
“For the words are closed up and sealed to the time of 
the end.”t They were firm in the belief that the desire 
to know these wonderful truths had been placed in them 
by God, so that He could open this His book of prophecy, 
Rnd these sealed visions to the world, because the time of 
the end, ‘‘the time appointed”]; was at hand, so that His 
faithful ones might understand and trust in Him. 


*Dan. 12: 4. 


tDan. 12: 9. 


JDan. 12: I. 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 


221 


Katy Anderson, who up to this time had for the most 
part been a listener, said, “ The subject of discussion for 
which we have met is of vital importance, because it ap- 
pears that there is a distinct history for each tribe, foretold 
in the blessings of Jacob, which we find in the forty-ninth 
chapter of Genesis, and also the same blessing given by 
Moses, and enlarged upon in the thirty-third chapter of 
Deuteronomy. Then if this separate history of each tribe 
is written in prophecy, and any of the tribes can be iden- 
tified in history as having a parallel history with these 
prophesies, then it makes our contention certain that the 
Teutons are the Lost House of Israel, 

“ If there be any one of the tribes that can be identified 
easier than another, it will most assuredly be the one who 
obtained the birthright blessing. This birthright was 
highly esteemed in ancient times, and, in fact, is to-day in 
Eastern lands. Jacob gave the birthright to Ephraim, Jo- 
seph’s youngest son ; Reuben, the eldest having lost it.* 
The blessing given to Ephraim by Israel on his deathbed, 
forms one of the most curiously recorded prophecies that 
was ever given to man.f One small portion of land did 
Israel possess when he gave Ephraim this blessing he 
knew also how long his children were to stay in Egypt ; he 
knew that his sons would dwell in Canaan, and that after a 
time Ephraim and Israel would be bereft of this land of 
Canaan, and that their nation would lose its king and King- 
dom. All this he knew when he said ‘ The scepter shall 
not depart from Judah, nor a law giver from between his 
feet, until Shiloh come.’ What small bounds were in the 
hills of Palestine compared to ‘ the utmost bounds of the 
everlasting hills !’ This heritage that he gave unto Joseph 
was practically giving them a title deed to the whole 
world, ‘ blessings of the deep,’ blessings of many child- 
ren, ‘ blessings of the breast and of the womb,’ §which 

*Gen. 49: 3-4. tGen. 49: 22-26. +Gen. 48: 22. §Gen. 49: 22-26. Deut. 33: 13-17. 


222 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 


were to increase and grow and extend until they encircled 
the globe. They were to have the best of everything ; the 
means and power to gather in and to retain it after it had 
been gathered. 

“ Then the great question that arises is, Can we find a 
nation on the firce of the earth that fills this large and far- 
seeing prediction, especially among the descendants of the 
Cimbri, now known as the Teutons.^ 

“ Only in the Anglo-Saxons. Their ships have sailed 
across every ocean, into every harbor, into every nook and 
inlet of the seas. The greater part of all the riches of the 
oceans, seas and rivers, the largest share of the gold and 
silver, and all other blessings of the everlasting hills to 
their utmost bounds, her sons have gathered and poured 
into the lap of Britain. God certainly inspired Israel to 
utter these remarkable words for Ephraim. ‘ He confirms 
the word of his servants He has so fulfilled it to Eph- 
raim, the Anglo-Saxons of to-day, that the world is as- 
tonished. The prophecy would not be completely ful- 
filled unless the descendants of one of the tribes had much 
more power, riches and glory than any of the others. A 
father can give a birthright to his son and have it executed 
by entail for a few generations only. But here was 
a birthright that must extend over thousands of years be- 
fore this one man’s posterity could grow into a multitude 
in the midst of the earth and encircle the globe ! Vast im- 
provements must needs be made in ways of travel before 
such a thing could be possible ; much learning would 
have to be gained of the geography of the world where 
all was then darkness ; ‘ wisdom and knowledge would 
need to be the stability of the times’ before such a meas- 
uring of the earth could be made, in order to gather in 
the blessing thereof; great superiority would be necessary 
in the race and nation that would attempt such a work and 
yet come out triumphant in the end. 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 223 

“ There has been in the Anglo-Saxons a settled national 
purpose to rule the seas, to plant naval stations and store- 
houses at the be^t points all over the earth, as no other na- 
tion has ever done. This policy has developed into the 
established purpose of having a navy equal to those of 
any, or all other powers of the world. Their policy of 
free trade has given them access to all nations, has 
brought all nations <^o them. Why is this people in the 
foreground thus.? The answer is in the words, ‘And thy 
seed shall become a multitude of nations.’ 

‘‘This unique policy is not of man’s, but of God’s 
teaching, that His great plans may be carried out to give 
Ephraim the birthright blessing. 

“ God’s purpose of having His Gospel preached to all 
the world, according to the command of Christ, could not 
have been carried out if several peoples were of the same 
strength. Some one nation must be placed far in the lead 
of all others, that defeats and changes could not take 
place by one power conquering the others, and destroying 
this work of planting the standard of the cross, as would 
be the case if one nation would succeed another in quick 
succession, and with such destruction and changes as re- 
sulted from the fall of the four ancient kingdoms of the 
East. It must be the greatest. It was not to be left to 
other people ; it was to stand forever. 

“When God inspired Jacob to give this birthright to 
Ephraim, and the promise that was to reach unto and 
gather in ‘ to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills,’ 
He had even then chosen the Islands of Britain as the 
place from which Ephraim would gather in this birthright 
blessing. This was the very spot of all the earth chosen 
by God, in His wisdom, as the best suited for Ephraim. 
It is, indeed, a phenomenal position that Britain holds, 
isolated from continental invading armies, a superabund- 
ance of coal and iron, a healthy climate, a small territory, 


224 A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 

where very soon the cry would be heard for more room, 
so that the promise of Ephraim’s becoming a ‘ multitude 
of nations ’ could be fulfilled. This island home is as a 
watch-tower from which they could look down over all 
the earth, and go forth and return at pleasure. 

“ Shakespeare writes : 

‘This fortress built by nature for herself 
Against infection and the hand of war; 

This happy breed of men, this little world, 

This precious stone set in the silver sea. 

Which serves it in the office of a wall. 

Or as a moat defensive to a house. 

Against the envy of unhappier lands; 

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.’ ” 

When Katy Anderson sat down Harvey arose and said : 
“ Possibly there is no verse in all the prophecies of the 
Bible with such a hidden meaning and such a mighty 
truth as the following : ‘ When I have bent Judah for me, 
filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O 
Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the 
sword of a mighty man.’* For over eighteen hundred 
years the Lord has bent Judah (the Jews) very low. 
They are yet bowed down among all nations, excepting 
among the Teutons, thus showing that the time of their 
oppression is nearly completed, for they are returning to 
their brethren, Israel, from Russia and other lands, and 
becoming citizens of the Teutonic nations. 

“Judah is also returning in great numbers to the Holy 
Land, about one hundred thousand having returned in the 
last ten years. Thus we see Judah being raised up. Then 
another wonderful chapter in history was written in ful- 
fillment of the above prophecy, when at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century Greece, the glorious, once more 
sprang into existence. The few descendants of the once 


*Zech. 9 : 13 . 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 225 

famous people excited the sympathy of the world in their 
struggle against the hated Turk, for freedom and nation- 
ality, and after a heroic struggle lasting for a decade, she 
now stands a living monument of the once proud nation 
who ruled the world and whose works of art are yet a 
dominant factor in the artistic world to-day. It is sixteen 
hundred years since the games of the Greeks were first 
held, but now they have been revived. The heroic stand 
that this people have taken against the bloodthirstiness of 
the Mussulman, and the stand they have taken among the 
nations, teaches the world that the sons of Greece have 
indeed arisen and live as a nation, and shows the knowl- 
edge of God in foretelling this chapter in the history of 
Greece that is being now written. 

“Great Britain’s war-power has become very great. 
The battleships, first and second class cruisers, and tor- 
pedo boats are more formidable and more in number than 
the combined fleets of any other three nations of the 
world. Thus have the three portions of this prophecy 
concerning these three peoples become history, and God 
has ‘ filled the bow with Ephraim.’ 

“ The glorious birthright blessing conferred on Eph- 
raim was sometime to make his seed a ‘ multitude of na- 
tions.’^ Britain has been the great colonizing power of 
the world, and, as I have said before, the many colonies 
that have been planted by Ephraim bid fair in the near 
future to become separate nations. 

“ The world acknowledges Britain to be the greatest 
power on earth, and wondrously strange it is that the 
United States, which is but an offshot from the great 
parent stock, is the next in greatness. Many assert that 
the American nation is not of British descent more than 
of other nationalities. The census of 1890 gives the fol- 
lowing of the American people : 

•Gen. 48: 19. 

16 


226 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 


“ British born, - - - - 

British parentage, ... 

Native Americans, mostly of British origin. 
Various European nationalities. 

Colored, .... 


4,103,806 
12, 100,000 

25.000. 000 

13.000. 000 
7,500,000 


“In other words, out of some 61,000,000 of people 
41,000,000 are of British blood to 20,500,000 of all other 
nationalities. 

“ These figures prove conclusively that the United 
States has almost as many people of British origin as has 
the mother-land. This makes the second great nation of 
Ephraim of the ‘multitude’ promised. If these two 
mighty nations were the close allies that would be expect- 
ed from such near relationship, in laws, customs and re- 
ligion, any great question that needed the interposition of 
justice would soon be righted, even if the whole world 
were allied against them. ‘ Blessings of the breast and of 
the womb’ indeed, when such a mighty increase has taken 
place in so short a time. 

“ When the Lord gave the birthright blessing of this 
earth to Ephraim He knew that it would be necessary be- 
fore the earth could be established and the desolate her- 
itages could be filled. One nation must have the pre- 
ponderance over all other nations to give protection to the 
young colonies as they were planted ; a leading power to 
force the heathen people to respect the messengers of love 
and peace sent out by King Jesus. We read in that great 
prophetic blessing given to Ephraim that ‘ From thence is 
the shepherd, the stone of Israel.’* A feature of the 
planting of all the colonies of Great Britain in the last 
four centuries, in all parts of the world, has been that an 
invitation has been given to all the Teutons, Judah and 
others, to come and take part in the gathering of the 
riches of the new lands, where she has been indeed, the 
‘ shepherd of all Israel,’ for she has given the same care, 

*Gen. 49; 24. 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 


327 


the same protection, the same strictly administered justice 
to all the other tribes as to her own sons. Thirty-six cen- 
turies have gone into the past since this was foretold that 
can now be seen and read by all men. ‘ A thousand years 
with the Lord is as one day,’ and all His words are ‘ yea 
and amen.’ 

And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, 
and in sure dwelling places, and in quiet resting places.’* 

“ Can we shut our eyes any longer to this mighty truth 
that has opened up before us in these later days, that the 
Anglo-Saxons are Ephraim, and that the other nations of 
the Teutonic race are the other tribes? 

“We can now understand why there are so many pas- 
sages of Scripture, referring to Ephraim. . So we read, 
‘ For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first- 
born. ’f ‘ I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me.’| 
‘ How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? I will not execute 
the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy 
Ephraim : for I am God and not man ; the Holy One is in 
the midst of thee.’§ ‘ The iniquity of Ephraim is bound 
up ; their sin is hid.’|| 

“ Then if God is still ‘ a father to Israel,’ and the ‘ ini- 
quity of Ephraim is bound up, and his sin hidden,’ we 
may surely expect Israel to rule the earth, to have the first 
possessions, and Ephraim to have a double portion among 
the tribes. The greatness of Britain and of her ‘ Titan 
Daughter of the West,’ is but another proof that the Teu- 
tonic nations are the tribes of Israel; that the Anglo-Sax- 
ons are Ephraim, to whom was given the birthright bless- 
ing and that all together are the many nations of promise, 
of whom Abraham was to be father. The number and 
greatness of the nations should not preclude any one from 
believing all that has been said ; for if there were but one 
nation, the conditions would not fit the prophecy. There 


*Isa. 32: 18. tier, 31; 9. IHosea 5: 3. 


§Hosea ii: 9. 


lIHosea 13: 12. 


2 z 8 a wonderful birthright blessing. 

must be one, the firstborn, above all others, and many oth- 
ers springing up from the greater one, according to prom- 
ise, and as seen in history. ‘For thus saith the Lord: 
Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief 
of the nations.’* 

“ Neither be dismayed, O Israel ; for lo, I will save thee 
from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity ; 
and Jacob shall reiurn, and shall be in rest and in quiet, 
and none shall make him afraid.’! 

“ ‘ Brittania needs no bulwarks, 

No towers along the steep; 

Her march is o’er the mountain wave, 

Her home is on the deep.’ 

“ ‘ The remnant of Israel shall feed and lie down, and 
none shall make him afraid.’]: 

“ ‘ Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. 

And this be our motto, ‘ In God is our trust;’ 

And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.’ 

“ With such volumes of evidence before us it can surely 
be said that the Anglo-Saxons are Ephraim, and that they 
have come into the birthright blessing of the world ; and 
having had it given to them, they shall retain it, because 
of ‘ Thus saith the Lord.’ ” 

Frank Cowper complimented Miss Anderson and Har- 
vey on the clear and strong evidence they had brought for- 
ward proving the Anglo-Saxons to be Ephraim. 

“ I am satisfied,” he said, “ that these great people are 
Ephraim, as many volumes of strong evidence could yet 
be given to prove that they had entered into the great 
birthright blessing given by Jacob. 

“ The blessings of Jacob and Moses to the other tribes 
are not so clear and distinct that a history can be traced 
clearly enough for any man to call them all by name. 


*Jer. 31: 7. 


tier. 30: 10. 


JZeph. 3: 13. 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 


229 


“ While there was no fault to be found with Manasseh 
as Joseph’s firstborn, as there was with Reuben, the first- 
born of Jacob, from whom the birthright was taken, yet 
the birthright was also to be taken from Manasseh and 
given to Ephraim, the younger ; and there arose a jealousy 
in consequence, between the tribes of Joseph’s two sons. 
This jealousy showed itself when Gideon, who was of the 
tribe of Manasseh,* destroyed the Midianites, and the 
Ephraimites chided them for not calling on them for help.f 
And again when Jepthah and the Gileadites, who were 
also of Manasseh,! subdued the Ammonites, having un- 
dertaken this enterprise alone. There was about as much 
restlessness in the tribe of Manasseh as there was displayed 
by Ephraim. If there were strife between these two sons 
of Jacob at times, when distress and affliction came upon 
them, as in the captivity, there would be a clinging to each 
other, an affinity closer than between other tribes. So I 
believe that the larger portion of France is the tribe of 
Manasseh, that they have thus clung to each other in their 
troubles and travels, and that Manasseh and Ephraim have 
settled on either sides of the straits of Dover. We see the 
French in our day making great advancements in all arts 
and sciences, so that the world calls her ‘ enlightened 
France.’ 

“ In reviewing the past we see that the French have es- 
tablished their power in Newfoundland, Acadia, Louisi- 
ana, Africa and Madagascar. But a large part of this ter- 
ritory has come under the power and language of the 
Ephraimites. And when we read of the ‘ tens of thous- 
ands of Ephraimites and the thousands of Manasseh push- 
ing the people together to the ends of the earth, ’§ we know 
that these two nations have been the great colonization na- 
tions of the world ; and where one was found so was the 
other. 

♦Judges 6: 15. tJudges 8: 1-3. +Num. 26: 29. §Deut. 33: 17. 


230 A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 

“ France was the leader in many colonizing expeditions, 
while Britain eventually came to hold these possessions as 
the ‘ shepherd’ over all. This very prophecy of Moses* 
respecting Joseph, of whom came two tribes, and which 
he coupled so closely together down through the ages; 
that far extending blessing to Joseph shows very clearly 
that they would go hand-in-hand in this colonizing of the 
desolate heritages of the earth. 

“ These two nations have done this as no other nations 
have. Therefore there is as rnuch certainty that enter- 
prising and enlightened France is Manasseh, as that the 
Anglo-Saxons are Ephraim. There is a different people 
in the south of France, of the Celtic race, but the greater 
part of France are Teutons.” 

Miss Cameron said : “ I am sure, as we view the mat- 
ter, we can easily identify the tribes of Zebulum and Issa- 
char, in the parallel story of prophecy and history written 
about them. 

‘‘Moses said that Zebulum and Issacharf should ‘ suck 
of the abundance of the sea and treasures hid in the sand,’ 
which no doubt had reference to Belgium and Holland 
with their extensive dyked lands, and their bordering on 
the sea, along with their great Island possessions in the 
East Indies. Zebulum’s lot in Canaan gave them a very 
short frontage on the Mediterranean sea — only a few 
miles ; while Issachar’s portion did not reach that sea at 
any point. This prophecy, made in that remote period, 
must have meant a blessing for future ages, as did the 
blessings of Ephraim. No people have a greater rever- 
ence for God than the Dutch. Seldom will a Hollander 
partake of food, no matter where he is, or in what com- 
pany, without first asking God’s blessing. He is no hyp- 
ocrite, he is not afraid of man when his duty to his God 
confronts him. So we read, ‘And of Zebulum he said. 


*Deut. 33: 17, 


tDeut. 33: 18-19. 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 23 I 

Rejoice, Zebulon, in thy g^oing ont; and Issacher in thy 
tents. They shall call the people unto the mountain ; 
there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness : for they 
shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of the treas- 
ures hid in the sand.’* 

“ When we know that the larger portion of the cities 
and population of Holland lie far below the level of the 
sea and rivers, and that any serious break in the dikes 
would engulf the whole country in ruin, bringing swift 
death to the people, then it is easy to understand that such 
a condition of affairs would cause men and women before 
they would retire into the gloom and darkness of the night, 
to seek protection of Divine Providence, to save them from 
this ever-present danger. Then when each family awak- 
ened and the morning dawned upon them, finding them- 
selves safe, most surely every one would render praise to 
God for his protection through the night. 

“ This seeking for protection from danger and giving 
thanks when kept in safety, would be no passing sentiment 
but would grow with the life of each individual and each 
generation, and would make these tribes a God fearing 
people. So we read : ‘ They shall offer sacrifices of 

righteousness.’ 

“ Such a knowledge of this great danger had been in- 
stilled in the minds of the children, that we have the story 
of the little hero, who, on his way home one night, saw a 
small stream of water running through a dike, in a locali- 
ty where no one could be had to repair it. This boy, 
knowing the danger, put his back against the opening in 
the dike, and in that position stayed alone all night; thus 
saving the whole country and people from ruin and death. 

‘‘ I fully believe that the people of Holland and Belgium 
are the tribes of Zebulum and Issachar. 

“ But in all the history herein written of the ten tribes, 


Deut. 33: 18-19. 


232 


A WONDERFUL BIRTHRIGHT BLESSING. 


and of Judah, no mention is made of the tribe of Benja- 
min. Although for many centuries the eyes of the world 
have been fixed on Judah, and writers and preachers have 
kept their history ever before us, while many have queried 
as to what had become of the ten tribes of the house of Israel, 
yet Benjamin has been forgotten, except in the history of 
the tribe contained in the Bible. That history is a very re- 
markable one, ranking, most certainl}^ next in importance 
after Judah and Ephraim, a history intensely interesting, 
from Benjamin himself down to the time when the world 
seems to have forgotten the tribe. One chapter in the his- 
tory of the tribe is tragic in the extreme ; and it is very 
remarkable that so much should have been said about the 
eleven tribes, and this one, which would have kept the 
number complete as at the first, should have dropped from 
our memories.” 

“ I have been preparing an essay on the tribe of Benja- 
min,” said Harvey, “ that I will read before you at a fu- 
ture time ; for there is an outline for ‘ little Benjamin in 
God’s Word, yet only in sentences; but bright as the fiash 
of a meteor, diffusing light amid the dimness that has set- 
tled over Jacob’s youngest son, the son of his old age.” 


CHAPTER XV. 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 

At the last meeting of Zion’s Watchers Verna had 
Rsked Harvey to go to her home so that they could talk to- 
gether of the many things that were existing in the 
church and the world that perplexed her and others so 
much. 

Harvey promised Verna that he would call two even- 
ings after the meeting. 

As these two kindred souls left the meeting that night 
and went to the place that was all there was of home for 
them, each one soliloquized: “Forty-eight hours from 
now, and we shall be in each other’s company.” After- 
wards, each hour that went by was counted from that 
number with a deepening interest. Both had daydreams 
as well as dreams at night of the sweet pleasure each 
would have in the other’s company. The purity of their 
love made their affection all the deeper. It was a secret 
love all unknown to the world, yet because they had never 
done any wrong between themselves or to others, they 
could not but be happy when in each other’s company. 
The silent voice, the glance of the eye, the things that 
spoke to them both of absence from each other, were what 
gave them aching hearts; an aching which at times made 
them feel that it was more than they could bear. 

At such periods, when such a feeling of utter loneliness 
came to them, they sought sympathy and strength from the 
One who alone could succor them. 


234 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


Words would fail to express the tender greeting be- 
tween these two spirits when the appointed hour came. 
There was the lingering clasp of the hand, the solicitous 
inquiry about each other’s welfare, the seeking to know by 
searching eyes that which each might not wish to tell to 
the other, fettered as they were, but the ever-present 
thought was expressed in words by each : “ What can I 
do to make you happier and your life’s journey easier? ” 

“ I am so glad you have not been kept away by any cir- 
cumstance, there is so much I wish to say to you,” said 
Verna, “ that I cannot say to any one else. In that which 
I wish to say to you I may be wrong, and yet I feel that I 
must speak.” 

“ It is about those entertainments in the church that you 
are so exercised about, is it not?” asked Harvey. 

“ In part only,” she answered. “ There is so much 
more involved than that which we see, which is in reality 
only an outward sign of a godless state that I can in no 
way account for. When precious souls are dying with- 
out a hope of eternal life, how is it possible that men who 
have consecrated their lives to save souls have lost all in- 
terest in that blessed work; while with too many of them 
the purpose of their life is plainly manifested, — they are 
in this work for the money and honors they can get out 
of it ? 

“We have been taught that by the preaching of the 
Gospel by man to man, the time would soon be ushered in 
when ‘ They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, 
and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord : for 
they shall all know me, from the least of them even unto 
the greatest of them, saith the Lord.’* 

“ When the work of foreign missions was taken up by 
the church, it did look as if the time would come when 
there would be a sweeping, continuous, onward move- 

*Jer. 31; 34. 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


235 


ment of Grace and Salvation, until the whole world would 
know Jesus as Saviour and King. 

“The heathen world is being civilized (?) after the 
manner 7nodern advancefnent^ viz., learning the use 
of tobacco^ rum and opium. They are being taught the 
use of the Mauser rifle, so that in Africa they are called 
the ‘ Black Terror,’ but the few that are being brought to 
the knowledge of Salvation are but as the dust of the bal- 
ance. Among the civilized people, skepticism .and for- 
mality are on the increase in the nominal Church. 

“ Statistics prove that the Cliurch is not holding its own 
members, the church-goers are decreasing in number, and 
the churches are becoming empty. The attendance in the 
Sabbath-school is falling off to an alarming extent. 

“ Among the lower class crime is on the increase,* and 
a lower standard of entertainments is sought after by this 
class, while within them there is a growing hatred of 
the Church.^ as it now exists. 

“ Oh, Harvey, what does it all mean? Where are we 
drifting to ? 

This sad story of ‘ falling away,’ as told by Verna was 
as a great cry of pain from a heart full of love and ten- 
derness, crying out for suffering ones, who were near and 
dear objects of affection to her. 

“ We have always understood that the sending out of 
missionaries over the heathen world, to convert them, had 
for its object the accomplishing of two great purposes, 
said Harvey. 

“ First, to bring the great heathen world into a knowl- 
edge of Salvation, which, when accomplished as has been 
understood, would be the ‘ fullness of the Gentile 
Church.’ 

“ Second, when that great purpose was accomplished, 
then and not till then would the Jews accept of Christ as 

•There were ten thousand murders in the United States last yean 


336 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


their Saviour. The fullness of the Gentiles and the con- 
version of the Jews, both together, as understood, would 
be the ushering in of the happy morning of the Millen- 
nium, to continue for a thousand years. 

“ But if we are the House of Israel (the Ten Lost 
Tribes), which we most surely are, then the fullness of 
the Gentile Church came in in the Apostolic Gentile 
Church ; and that time when ‘ all men shall know the 
Lord,’ is a chapter in the world’s history that is yet in the 
future, and will be brought about by a mightier force than 
by man’s preaching to man. 

Those two chapters in the history of the Church have 
not yet been accomplished, nor indeed can be in the way 
the Church has tried. 

“ The next chapter following the fullness of the' Gentile 
Church was the overspreading of transgressions in this 
Gentile Church, until all the Saints of the Most High were 
‘ \vorn out,’ and ‘ the abomination that maketh desolate 
was set up.’ This was the selling of indulgences— liberty 
to commit any sin granted by the Romish Church of the 
Dark Ages. 

“ A parallel history of the Dark Ages was the period of 
time that God had spoken of: ‘I will bring you (Israel) 
into the wilderness of the people ’ (the Romans were then 
the chief people of the earth, and they called the land of 
Germany the Great Northern Wilderness), ‘ and there will 
I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your 
fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.’* 

“ The second chapter following it was the time of the 
Reformation, the time when ‘the judgment was set and 
the kingdom was taken from them and given to the Saints 
of the Most High.’! This was Israel brought into the 
‘ Bond of the Covenant.’]; — Salvation through Jesus 
Christ. In other words, the time that God said : ‘ I will 

*Ezek. 20: 35-36. tRev. 7: 27. JEzek. 20: 37. 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 23/ 

pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine 
offspring.’* 

“ The third chapter was the movement among the Teu- 
tonic nations to preach the glad tidings of Salvation to all 
other people, all nations. It was the time spoken of by 
Christ when He said : ‘ This Gospel of the Kingdom shall 
be preached in all the world for a witness unto all na- 
tions.’! 

"‘I see a new light in that Scripture, preached as a 
witness^ that I have never seen before,” said Verna. “ As- 
a witness certainly it does not mean that these nations are 
all to be converted in this way, but only the ones who are 
needed as witnesses.” 

“ That is just as I see it,” answered Harvey. “The 
outpouring of God’s Spirit upon Israel (the Teutons), 
was the taking of the kingdom of God from the Jews 
(Judah), and the giving of it to a nation bringing forth 
the fruits thereof. That nation was Lost Israel, that we 
have now found to be the Teutonic nations. That the 
Teutons are the House of Israel is certain, because it was 
the House of Israel that was to carry the New Covenant 
of Grace and travail in birth with bringing forth children 
for the Kingdom ; the witnesses required to testify to the 
world of the redeeming, victorious work of Christ, and 
who will all come back with Him, when He comes. 

“ When that bringing forth was accomplished then we 
are told that the ‘ remnant of His brethren shall return 
unto the children of Israel. ’J 

“This bringing forth is about accomplished for the Jews ; 
Christ’s brethren are coming from Russia and other parts 
and making their home with the House of Israel. 

“ The fourth chapter in prophecy and history was when 
the Gospel of the Kingdom was preached to all nations as 
a witness. Christ said : ‘ Then shall the end come.’ ” 


*Isa. 44: 3; also Isa. 59: 21. 


tMath. 24: 14. 


tMicah 5: 3. 


238 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


“ The end of what?” asked Verna. 

“ The end of the Gospel age ; or the time that this Gos- 
pel was to be preached for the gathering of a certain num- 
ber as witnesses for the great tribunal soon to be held on 
earth.” 

“You do not mean the day of judgment, do you?” 
asked Verna. 

“ No,” answered Harvey, “ ‘I refer to the Second Com- 
ing of Christ. He tells us that, ‘ The Father judgeth no 
man, but committed all judgment unto the Son.’* 

“Jude also tells us, ‘ Behold, the Lord cometh with ten 
thousand of His Saints, to execute judgment upon all, and 
to convince all that are ungodly among them of their un- 
godly deeds.’! The saints spoken of by Jude are the re- 
deemed of the ages — ‘ that multitude which John saw 
around the throne, clothed in white robes which no man 
could number. * * ^ Those which came out of the 
great tribulation and have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ 

“ That it is Christ’s coming again with His company is 
the beginning of the thousand years of the Millennium, is 
clearly shown by what we read in Revelation of the re- 
deemed ones — ‘ And they lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years. § 

“ But there is another chapter foretold in prophecy to be 
written in the world’s history immediately after the Gos- 
pel of the Kingdom shall have been preached to all na- 
tions as a witness, and before Christ’s reign as King 
begins. 

“ Christ, our Great Prophet, told His followers who 
will live in the latter days — of which I believe we now see 
the beginning, — that a supreme temptation would come to 
the world, and says : ‘ Because thou hast kept the word of 
my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temp- 

*John 5: 22. tJude 14-15. tRev, 7: 9-14. §Rev. 20: 4-7. 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 239 

tation, which shall come upon the whole world, to try 
them that dwell upon the earth.’* 

Paul also sends forth a note of warning, when he 
writes to Timothy in these words : ‘ This know also, that 
in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall 
be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas- 
phemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 
without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, 
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, trait- 
ors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lov- 
ers of God ; having a form of Godliness but denying the 
power thereof : from such turn away. * * * * gyt evil 
men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving 
and being deceived. ’f 

“ If it is covetousness and greed that is again to take 
hold of men’s lives, we see the monster now stalking 
abroad. For with every advance that is made in science 
and civilization, a spirit of greed and covetousness is 
spreading abroad as never before, and far ahead of the 
mighty progress of knowledge and invention.” 

“Then you think,” said Verna, “that the evils that I 
have had to contend with in my Sunday-school work, and 
many other matters of the same kind which we see and 
which are to be deplored, are but the beginning of the 
* perilous times’ spoken of by Paul?” 

“ Yes, we are living in the beginning of the ‘ perilous 
times,’ a chapter in the history of the world and in the 
Church, the conclusion of which will be that time of 
trouble that Christ foretells : ‘For then shall be great trib- 
ulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world 
to this time, no, nor ever shall be.’ ” j 

“ That proves beyond a doubt that the conversion of the 
great heathen world, will not be an accomplished fact be- 
fore the days of the Millennium will be ushered in over 
the world,” said Verna. 


•Rev. 3: 10. 


t2 Tim. 3: 1-6-13. 


tMath. 24: 21. 


240 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


“ It most surely does,” answered Harvey. “ It also 
proves that the Teutons are the house of Israel, and that 
the Jews are the house of Judah.” 

“ When do you think the Jews will be brought into the 
full knowledge of Salvation?” asked Verna. 

“ Not until their great Messiah comes to them and to the 
world,” said Harvey. “Their Messiah is Christ coming 
the second time ; but coming in great glory as the mighty 
King for whom they have been looking, but which in re- 
ality is Christ coming again. Their eyes were purposely 
blinded by God respecting His first coming. Each gener- 
ation of the Jews down through the centuries, have anx- 
iously watched for His coming as foretold in Scripture, 
which ive know have reference to Christ* s second com- 
ing ** 

“ Will the Teutons, as the house of Israel, be subject to 
the same temptations described by Paul to Timothy?” 
asked Verna. 

“ Most certainly they will. The tribes of Israel, with 
all the light of the Gospel, that has shed its glorious light 
over them, that they have carried to the ends of the earth, 
will be subject to the same temptation. Israel was to bud 
and blossom and fill the whole earth with fruit, spreading 
the Gospel wherever they went. The command had gone 
forth, ‘ Glorify ye the Lord, even the name of the Lord 
God of Israel, in the isles of the sea.’ Then when the 
command had been obeyed, the prophet tells us that ‘From 
the uttermost parts of the earth we have heard songs, even 
glory to the righteous.’ Christ has told us that there 
is none righteous but God. Here then, is a picture, a 
history of our own times, when the Gospel has been 
preached in all lands to the ‘ uttermost part,’ songs of 
praise have gone up to God for the gift of His Son and the 
hope of Salvation. But here comes a mighty change be- 
fore the vision of Christ, and He cries, ‘ But I said, my 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


241 


leanness, my leanness ! woe unto me ! the treacherous 
dealers have dealt treacherously, yea, the treacherous deal- 
ers have dealt very treacherously.’* 

“ Therefore, if a leanness has come there must once 
have been a fatness; if there has come woe, there must 
once have been gladness and songs ; if now there has come 
great treachery and formality and less godliness in the pro- 
fessed religion of the day, then surely we have come to the 
latter days of which Paul speaks, the time when the treach- 
erous dealers are in the ascendancy. Then these Scrip- 
tures and their fulfillment as daily manifested to all, teach- 
es that the Millennium will not come by the preaching of 
the Gospel by man, or any of the past manifestations of 
God’s power as displayed, because sin is virulent in every 
corner of the earth to-day, flaunting its victories in the 
very face of God’s Christ, and the Christian Church, afraid 
neither of God nor man. 

The past is no warning to the sinful world ; the future 
has no terrors for them ; never were the doctrines and 
teachings of the Bible so hotly assailed as at present. 
Scientists are full of infidelity. The world is full of vice 
and iniquity ; and some preachers of the Gospel openly 
express disbelief of some parts of the Word of God. 
Aided and generaled by Hell’s forces, they would destroy 
this our compass and let men drift helplessly into the 
storms that are raging without in every sea.” 

“ This dark picture that you have painted does not look 
as if the Millennium was coming in by the preaching of 
the Gospel,” said Verna. “God in some more effective 
way must demonstrate to the forces of hell and earth His 
power and His hatred of sin before that blessed time will 
be ushered in. Paul writes to the Thessalonians of the 

♦ 

*Is. 24: 15-16.* When we read of the personal pronoun “ I ” or “ My ” in the 
Scriptures in a sense like this it always means Christ, because He was the great 
prophet. 


17 


242 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘That ye be not 
soon shaken in mind, or be troubled either by spirit, or by 
word, nor by letter as from us, as that day of Christ is at 
hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that 
day shall not come except there be a falling away first, 
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.’ 

“ But who is the son of perdition.^” asked Verna. 

“ Satan,” answered Harvey. “ The one that opposeth 
Christ’s mission of love and mercy to fallen man and who 
will exercise all his power to lead the world away from all 
that is good, just previous to Christ’s second coming. So 
we read: ‘Woe to the inhabitants of the earth ! for the 
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because 
he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’ ”t 

“ Then you do not think anti-christ is a man that shall 
be raised up to do evil?” asked Verna. 

“ No, I do not,” answered Harvey. “ The son of per- 
dition, anti-christ and Satan are one and the same person, 
and the ‘ falling away’ will be caused by him tempting 
every man to commit wickedness. The hour of tempta- 
tion spoken of by Christj that is coming upon all the 
world, ‘the falling away’ can alone be brought about by 
the almost supreme power of the devil.” 

“The fact that a ‘falling away’ from righteousness 
comes before the dawn of the Millennium,” continued 
Harvey, “ proves conclusively that the fullness of the 
Gentiles (the Apostolic Church), and the Millennium are 
two distinct events, widely separated by many centuries of 
time, and by many chapters of intervening history. Paul 
was the instrument in God’s hands to gather in this full- 
ness of the Gentiles. 

“ No man ever preached as Paul preached; no man 
ever showed such untiring energy as he did, facing the 
mighty potentates of the Gentile world, disputing against 

*2 Thess. 2: 2-3. tRev, 12: 12. tRev. 3: 10. 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


243 


the highest schools of the Grecian and Roman civilization 
in their very seats of learning, preaching alike to civilized 
and barbarian, to rich and poor, to bond and free, suffer- 
ing the most terrible scourgings, persecutions and dangers 
by land and sea, because he was given the great commis- 
sion to bring in the Gentile world in their fullness. ‘ I 
speak to you Gentiles inasmuch as I am the Apostle of 
the Gentiles, I magnify my office.’ All this vital force 
and unflagging zeal was displayed that the fullness of the 
Gentiles might be an accomplished fact according to the 
commission given to him for the still grander purpose in 
the place of God, of afterwards bringing in Israel. 

“ That this was the grander purpose that inspired Paul 
is manifested in his writing to the Romans on this very sub- 
ject. Not one word had Paul to say about Judah, it was 
the House of Israel, the seven thousand in Elijah’s time 
that bad not bowed the knee to Baal ; it was the remnant 
of this same seven thousand, who existed when Paul wrote 
that epistle, who were to be ‘ elected by grace.’ ‘ God 
hath not cast away His people which he foreknew. Wot 
ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh 
intercession to God against Israel, saying. Lord, they have 
killed thy prophets and digged down thine altars; and I 
am left alone and they seek my life. But what saith the 
answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself 
seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the 
image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also 
there is a remnant according to the election by Grace. 
And if by grace then it is no more of works : otherwise 
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is 
no more grace : otherwise work is no more work. What 
then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; 
but the elect hath obtained it.’* 

“ Israel could not be saved by works, they must be saved 


*Rom. 


: 2-7. 


244 HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 

by the same process as the Gentiles, — by the Grace of 
Jesus Christ. Their eyes were darkened, they went into 
captivity. From captivity they were allured into the 
northern wilderness, their identity lost, their language 
changed, and idolatry forever driven out of them. They 
were not even to know that the Great King from the house 
they had once rejected had in reality come.* Paul goes on to 
sa}^ still speaking of the house of Israel (not Judah), that 
their very ‘ diminishing brought richness and fullness to the 
Gentiles,’ this very end for which he was laboring with 
such terrible earnestness. Then he asks how much more 
the fullness of Israel will be than the fullness of the 
Gentiles, when they are received and grafted in again; it 
will be ‘ life from the dead.’ Again Paul tells the Romans 
of Israel : ‘ For I would not, brethren, that ye be ignorant 
of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own con- 
ceits ; that blindness is in part come to Israel until the 
fullness of the Gentiles come in. And so all Israel shall 
be saved : as it is written. There shall conie out of Zion 
the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Israel, 
for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away 
their sins. As concerning the Gospel they are enemies 
for your sakes : but as touching the erection they 

ARE BELOVED FOR THE FATHER’S SAKES. 

“ This fullness of the Gentiles for which he labored, 
existed in the Apostolic Churches of his day. There 
never has been at any time, since the Apostolic Church 
existed, a Gentile people of any influence, who have em- 
braced this Gospel, an additional proof that the Teutons 
are Israel. And now a great falling away and a formal- 
ity is settling down in the churches of Israel, and a greed 
amounting to madness is spreading over the world. The 
fullness of the Gentiles has come and Israel has been 
brought in, but instead of the Millennium has come formal- 

Kings 12: 1-19. tRom. ir: 25-28. 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


245 


ity, greed and skepticism.* John tells us that anti-Christ 
would come, and was then in the world. So the nations 
that have clung to the Roman Catholic Church and the 
Greek Church are certainly in league against Christ, and 
have the real spirit of anti-Christ, while Israel was to 
glorify the God of Israel in this salvation and fill the 
whole earth with fruit, and this Gospel of the Kingdom 
was to be preached unto all nations as a witness only. 

“ Neither Paul nor the Apostolic Church ever preached 
it to all the world, to all nations; this work was left for 
the Teutons. The -Millennium must come in some other 
way, and God has plainly shown in His Word how it shall 
be brought about. 

“ There will be in the near future a chapter in the his- 
tory of the Church and the world, of so startling a nature 
as to make poor humanity tremble and cease its boasting. 
* For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, 
boasters, proud * * * traitors, high-minded, lovers of 
pleasure more than lovers of God.’ Such a dreadful state 
of mind in man will bring about that time of tribulation 
‘ such as was not since the beginning of the world.’ ” 

“ You have unravelled many Scriptures and many 
things that were heretofore mysterious and impossible for 
me to understand,” said Verna. “ I have prayed earnest- 
ly to God that I might be made to understand these Scrip- 
tures, and also that I might know why God’s work for the 
Salvation of mankind was not progressing to a speedy 
completion. Is there not much for us yet to learn respect- 
ing the events just preceding the coming of Christ?” 

“ Yes,” answered Harvey. “ If these other matters 
that have had such far-reaching importance have not been 
understood in the past, then there must be much that is 
not understood respecting the mightiest event of all time 
that far transcends any other in the past or future — the 
second coming of Christ.” 


*2 Tim. 3: 1-13. 


246 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


“ Have you been studying the Scriptures that bear on 
His second coining ? ” asked Verna. 

“ Yes, I have been, and am yet, but it is a deep subject. 
Let us be diligent at the throne of Grace that God will 
lead us into the full light of this glorious coming King and 
Kingdom, as written in His Word.” 

“ He has already shown us many wonderful trutiis, for 
which my heait is full of praise to Him,” said V^erna. 

“If God,” said Harvey, “has called upon our little 
band to be watchers for Him and His Kingdom in these 
‘ latter days,’ and is filling us with His wonderful truths so 
long ‘ shut up,’ as told unto Daniel and the other prophets, 
then there is no people on all this earth that have more 
reason to be filled with joy and praise.” 

Harvey rose to go as he said this, and held out his hand 
to Verna, and said : “ I have found out that there are two 
loves in my life, which fill up every attribute of my na- 
ture, and these two objects and my love for them are so far 
reaching, that they fill earth and heaven for me.” 

Verna’s eyes looked straight into Harvey’s with a kind- 
ling light as she said : “ Does God and his Christ occupy 
the first place in your love, and do they fill heaven for 
you ?” * 

“ I can say yes to both of your questions. Do you wish 
me to tell you what is the object that takes second place in 
my affections, which holds all there is of earth for me, — 
or do you know, Verna.?” asked Harvey. 

“You need not tell me, I know,” said Verna, while her 
face flushed red. 

“ But I will tell you,” he said. “ If this world were all 
mine, I would cheerfully give it all up if I could but call 
you my own.” 

As Harvey said this Verna sat down on a chair and wept 
bitterly, but did not speak. 

Then Harvey said, while his voice trembled with emo- 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


247 

tion ; “ Verna, does it grieve you much that I have said 
this to you? Is it your wish that I should break the bond 
that binds us together?” 

“ Oh, don’t speak thus,” she said. 

“ Do you wish me to forget you?” said he. 

Verna quickly ceased her weeping when Harvey asked 
her these questions, and looked at him with a face white 
with fear; then she rose quickly from her chair and like a 
frightened bird came up to Harvey as if seeking shelter 
from some great danger, saying, “ I cannot break the bond 
that binds me ! I cannot forget.” 

There was a wail of agony in her voice as she said 
this, a depth of emotion that words would fail to express. 
Then she wept again. 

As Harvey held her in his arms in a long and tender 
embrace, he could not keep the tears back from his eyes, 
and they wept together. 

“Oh, Harvey,” said Verna, “have I made you shed 
tears? Please stop; that makes my cross all the heavier 
to bear.” 

“ Is my heart less tender than yours? Would you have 
me cold and stern?” 

“ No, no, I would not.” 

“ Then,” said he, “ let our mingled tears be the pledge 
of our devotion and eternal fidelity to each other.” 

“So be it,” she answered; “and the solemnness of it 
ought to make it to both of us as sacred as heaven itself.” 

“ It will be,” he answered, “ and if we keep fast hold 
of purity and righteousness, for the sake of the greater 
love that we have for God and His Christ, we shall get our 
full reward in His way and in His time ; such a reward as 
will be our everlasting joy throughout eternity. Christ 
says to you and I, just at this time, and also for the future, 
‘ He that overcometh shall inherit all things.’* ‘ Behold, 


*Rev. 21: 7. 


248 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


I come quickly ; and my reward is with me to give to ev- 
ery man according as his work shall be.’* ‘ Be thou faith- 

ful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.’ ’’f 

“ If God will give us daily grace to win His reward and 
crown, and the joy that will accompany such a winning be 
ever before us, there is no fear of falling,” said V^erna. 

“ If we could only get into the state of mind that Paul 
did, it would be well for us,” answered Harvey. 

What was that.^” asked Verna. 

“ In his trouble he prayed thrice to God that Satan 
might depart from him. But God answered him and 
said : ‘ My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is 
made perfect in weakness. * ♦ * Most gladly will I glory 
in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon 
me. Therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities * * * 
in distresses, for Christ’s sake ; for when I am weak, then 
am I strong,’ ”j 

“ Neither of us have come to ^uch a state of mind as 
that, I fear,” said Verna. But if we are sincere in giv- 
ing God and His Christ first place in our hearts, as de- 
manded by Him of us in the first commandment; and if 
the carrying of our cross brings the dearer presence of 
Christ nearer to us ; then we ought to rejoice in our cross. 
It does seem that God is putting this our profession of giv- 
ing Him first place in our hearts to this severe test. Don’t 
you think so, Harvey?” 

“ This is indeed a new thought to me,” said Plarvey. 
“ I believe you are right. In such a test there is a chance 
of a deep searching of our hearts. Men think that when 
they have been enabled to say : ‘ Not my will but thine be 
done,’ that they have surmounted the greatest difficulty in 
the Christian life ; but to rejoice in distress and blasted 
hopes, is a mountain-top to which few mortals ever climb. 

“ I suppose,” continued Harvey, “we think that our 


*Rev. 22: 12. 


tRev, 2: 10. 


X'z Cor. 12: 8-10. 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 249 

cross is about as heavy as we can carry, but I can tell you 
one that would be much heavier, at least for me.” 

‘‘ May you never have to carry it,” said Verna. “ But 
tell me what it is. Perhaps to know of a greater one that 
we might have to carry, would make this one appear 
lighter.” 

“ If either of us stood alone in our devotion for each 
other, it would be sorrow indeed, and might be partly ex- 
pressed in the following verses: 

“ ‘One is beloved, and one is the lover; 

One gives and the other receives; 

One lavishes all in a wild emotion, 

One hopes and the other believes. 

One lies awake in the night to weep. 

And the other drifts off in a sweet, sound sleep. 

“ ‘One soul is aflame with a Godlike passion; 

Ojie plays with love in an idler’s fashion; 

One speaks and the other hears. 

One says: ‘ I love you,’ and wet eyes show it; 

And one laughs lightly and says: ‘ I know it ! ’ 

With smiles for the other’s tears. 

One lives for the other, and nothing beside. 

And one remembers the world is wide.’ ” 

As Harvey finished the two verses Verna said : “Oh, 
Harvey, our sorrow might be greater.” 

“ Yes, Verna, you know it is said : ‘ There is nothing 
bad but might be worse. Good-night, Verna. Our 
prayers will always be a source of comfort.” 

“ Good-night, Harvey ; may the God of all comfort, 
comfort you ! ” 

After separating from each other both honestly searched 
their hearts to see if God really held first place therein; 
and if the sori'ow they were passing through was a joy be- 
cause of the continued presence of Jesus Christ with 
them. 

Verna opened her Bible at these words : “For hereunto 


250 


HIEDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


were you called, because Christ also suffered for us.”* 
“ Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the 
flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind ; for he 
that suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin ; that he 
should no long^er live the rest of his time in the flesh * * 
but to the will of God.”t 

Verna never before felt the tender sympathy of the great 
loving heart of her Saviour as when she read those Scrip- 
tures. She now knew that she had not “ An High Priest 
that could not be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, 
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
sin.”t 

She fervently thanked the Lord that He had armed her 
and Harvey with the same mind; and although they had 
suffered, yet they had not given way to sin. To Verna 
this was a proof that the fear and love she had for her God 
was stronger than the love she had for Harvey. 

Then she prayed : “ Oh, Lord, show Harvey this great 
truth this night as he reads his Bible, that he also may 
have joy in the knowledge that the tender love of his Sav- 
iour is reaching out to support him.” 

The tone of Verna’s voice changed to one of deep mel- 
ody, as she prayed these words: ‘‘Father I thank Thee 
that I have two loves as well as Harvey. My God, I 
praise Thee that I have met Harvey and learned to love 
him with love’s fullness. I thank Thee that he fills up all 
there is of earth to me, because this earthly love has made 
my love to Thee, my Father, and for my dear Saviour, 
broader, deeper, and higher than I had ever thought of in 
fancy, or in my dreams. I know it is all but a few drops 
from that great ocean of love, given to me which always 
encircles Thee, and that which belongs only to the God of 
Love. What am I that Thou art so mindful of me? Ac- 
cept, therefore, my weak, imperfect song of praise.” 

*i Peter 2: 21. ti Peter 4: 1-2. iHeb. 4: 15.’ 


HIDDEN TREASURES FOUND. 


23 f 

That ni^ht Harvey did find those passages, and also- 
found the same sweet comfort as did Verna. 

When Harvey was rejoicing that God was not angry 
with him, but instead he had the knowledge of the kind- 
ness of the Eternal God given to him in thus filling him 
with His presence and power to resist sin, he cried : 

Oh, Lord, let Verna also know of this storehouse of 
Thy riches. ‘ May we both feel that Thou art ever our 
refuge, and that underneath us are Thine everlasting 
arms.’ 

Unknown to them, God had fulfilled a precious promise 
to them : ‘ If any man will do his will, he shall know of 
the doctrine ;’t the doctrine most needed to strengthen 
each individual follower in particular trials and tempta- 
tions. 


*Deut. 33: 27. 


tJohn 7: 17. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


IDENTIFIED. 

Some weeks after the events of the preceding chapter 
Harvey announced to Zion's Watchers that he was ready 
to give the essay which he had been preparing on the 
Tribe of Benjamin. In opening, he said that of necessity 
the essay would be a long one, because of the fact that the 
history which belongs to this tribe and which we have in 
the Bible, was a separate and distinct one from those of 
^11 other tribes. 

“ That being so in the past,” he continued, “ then we 
may be sure of a separate history down through the medi- 
aeval ages to modern times. The history of this tribe is a 
very remarkable one, ranking most certainly next in im- 
portance after Ephraim and Judah ; a history intensely in- 
teresting from Benjamin himself down to the time when 
the world seems to have forgotten the tribe. One chapter 
in the history of this tribe was tragic in the extreme ; and 
it is very remarkable that so much should have been said 
about the eleven tribes, and this one, which would have 
kept the number complete as at first, should have dropped 
from our memories. 

“ There is an outline of a work for ‘ little Benjamin’* 
in God’s Word, yet only in sentences, but bright as the 
flash of a meteor, diffusing light amidst the dimness that 
has settled over Jacob’s son, the son of his old age. ‘ And 


•Ps. 68: 27. 


IDENTIFIED. 


25s 


he said. Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but 
Israel : for as a prince hast thou power with God and men, 
and hast prevailed.’* Jacob’s power as a prince with God 
and man was wherein he gained the blessing, so that 
where he loved, God also loved. This strange ‘ hast pre- 
vailed ’ was extended to Jacob’s children’s children, while 
the world exists. Circumstances came up in the life of 
Jacob over which he had no control, but in which his love 
for Benjamin was intensified almost as much as it was for 
Joseph. ‘ And God Almighty give you mercy before the 
man, that he may send away your other brother and Ben- 
jamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. ’f 

“ We see Jacob’s love for Rachel displayed in the four- 
teen years of service (counted as but a day), transferred 
to her children. The terrible uncertainty which for over 
twenty long years had hung like a cloud over the disap- 
pearance of Joseph, had resulted in Jacob’s affections be- 
ing deepened ten-fold for Joseph’s brother, now the only 
living child of his beloved Rachel, who had died in giv- 
ing him birth. This love was well known to all the .sons, 
of Jacob. J No more thrilling story could be told, even in 
fiction, why a father should love a son. He was the only 
son now living, of the only woman he had ever loved for 
whom he waited fourteen years before he could claim her 
as his own with that love intensified by many circum- 
stances in his life. And now the awful alternative was 
starvation for himself and his family, or to send Benjamin 
to a far-distant land because of the strange and unreason- 
able demand of the second ruler of that country, who had 
said : Except your younger brother be with you, ye shall 

not see my face ; ’ or in other words, ye shall go back to 
your father as empty as ye came. 

“ If Jacob had this intense love for Benjamin, and ‘ as 
a prince’ had power with God in prayer, would it be rea- 

tGen. 43: 14. $Gen. 44: 18-34. 


*Gen. 32: 28. 


354 


IDENTIFIED. 


sonable to suppose that this tribe had no mission to per- 
form, and all others had.^ Most surely every sigh, every 
prayer of Jacob for Benjamin would be heard and 
answered by God, and a work given for this tribe also to 
perform in the world. Benjamin’s mission needed a spec- 
ial preparation which would characterize his descendants 
forever, in the work before them. This special prepara- 
tion was begun when the whole tribe of Benjamin had 
been cut down to six hundred men, and not a woman or 
child survived the tenible slaughter by the other tribes. 
It was not because of Benjamin’s sin that this evil came 
on the tribe. It was the Gideonites who committed the 
abominable sin of Gibeah,* and the Benjamites, still res- 
pecting the covenant made by Joshua with the Gibeonites, 
had been persuaded to help them in this their hour of need, 
and to join with them against the other tribes. All that 
the other tribes asked of Benjamin was to deliver up the 
men of Gibeah who had committed the sin that stirred the 
tribes of Israel so deeply. It was a reasonable request, 
and should have been granted ; and we might wonder how 
it was that Benjamin did not at once seek them out and 
deliver them up. But when we know how the Gibeonites 
deceived Joshua by artifice and craft forty-five years be- 
fore, it is quite reasonable to suppose that the dispo- 
sition to deceive was still retained by them, and that they 
had succeeded once again in telling a plausible story, very 
different from the actual facts, to the Benjamites, who 
must have felt that the other tribes wished to force an issue 
against the Gideonites of such an unjust nature that they 
could not but oppose it ; otherwise how could one small 
tribe hope to succeed against eleven more powerful ones.^ 
It is not probable that the tribe of Benjamin had become 
so immoral in forty-five years that they could see no wick- 
-edness in what the men of Gibeah had done. But in the 


^Judges 19: 20-30. 


IDENl'IFIED. 


255 


struggle which followed they were finally overpowered 
and swept from the face of the earth, excepting six hun- 
dred men, who fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rim- 
mon, where they abode four months.* Has ever a case in 
xthe history of any people been so tragic as this one in the 
history of Benjamin : out in a wilderness, a cave in a rock 
for a dwelling place, having fled there for safety? Their 
lives were all they had brought with them. What an 
abiding! Alone in this wilderness, knowing that the des- 
truction of their homes was still going on by a fierce foe 
five hundred thousand strong. Death by the sword would 
have been preferable to starvation. As the days grew in- 
to weeks and the weeks into months, there would be an 
awakening of conscience among those men, that would 
have an effect as long as the tribe existed, even to a thous- 
and generations. They had found out that to defend 
wrong was to be a partaker with the sinner. In chose 
weary months they would learn to think before hasty ac- 
tion would be taken again in any case. In seeking for 
food in that wilderness, with numberless enemies all 
around them, this spirit of caution would not, could not 
be a passing impression ; but before those four months had 
gone into the past, this cautious, alert, wary spirit, would 
have become a deep-seated principal in the lives of 
those six hundred men, and would be a distinguish- 
ing characteristic of their posterity while a man remained. 
It was indeed a special training that would have lasting 
effect. 

“The same desperate, lonely feeling was in every 
breast; while every one of the six hundred were men, 
men who possessed all their mental and physical powers. 
There were no children to grow up among them who knew 
not of this tragic event; all were men who could think, 
who could reason out that there had been a cause, an ef- 


*Judges, chapters 19-20-21. 


256 


IDENTIFIED. 


feet, an end well merited, — all of which they would re- 
member to teach their children who in turn would teach 
the generations to come, until a sense of right and wrong, 
of caution, and of deep sympathy for one another would 
be firmly fixed within the very being of their posterity. 

“ At the end of the four months, when the fierce wrath 
and purposes of the Lord were accomplished, the eleven 
tribes had thoughts of mercy toward the remnant of Ben- 
jamin. ‘ And the people came to the house of God and 
abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices 
and wept sore; and said, O Lord God of Israel, why is 
this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day 
one tribe lacking in Israel ?'* Although there were yet 
six hundred men left, yet the eleven tribes were sa 
moved by the terrible wickedness done that they had sworn 
by the Lord that they would not give their daughters in 
marriage to men who would defend such abominable prac- 
tices in the Gibeonites. They went even further than that ; 
they called on the Lord to curse the man that would give 
a wife to Benjamin. f 

“ This terrible oath of the eleven tribes had another 
side to it: they had called on Israel to come to Mizpah, 
to give their assistance in putting down this iniquity, to 
take their stand against the wrong for the right. They 
had said, ‘ He that cometh not up shall surely be put to 
death.’ So the inquiry went forth, ‘ Which one city is 
there of the tribes that came not up to Mizpah to the 
Lord.’ And behold there came none to the camp from 
Jabesh-Gilead to the assembly. The congregation sent 
thither twelve thousand of the most valiant men, and com- 
manded them saying, ‘ Go and smite the inhabitants of 
Jabesh-Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the wo- 
men and children.’! 

“ They were to smite every male, old and young, every 

‘Judges 21: 2-3. tJudges 21: 1-17-18. JJudges 21: 8-9-10. 


IDENTIFIED. 


357 


married woman, every adulteress, but to spare all virgins 
and bring them back with them. The question arises, 

‘ Were the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead as guilty as the 
tribe of Benjamin?’ In Benjamin’s case they defend- 
ed the iniquity, while the men of Jabesh-Gilead when 
called upon to punish the wrong-doers looked on with in- 
difference. We must believe that in the eyes of the Lord 
the indifference of the one was as bad as the defence by the 
other, else the same retribution would not have been meted 
out to both. God was the king who was directing affairs 
and administering justice ; that all-wise being whenever 
makes mistakes, who never over-punishes. So all the in- 
habitants of Jabesh-Gilead, save four hundred young wo- 
men, were destroyed.* 

“ What a strange coincidence in the union of these two 
remnants as husbands and wives. They had both come 
through the same scourge with their lives only ; they could 
talk of the cause of the destruction of their people ; they 
could sympathize one with the other; they were taught 
that their fathers and brothers were wrong in not standing 
up against such iniquity. Thus they would reason, and ' 
would teach their children. Thus a beginning of a new 
nation was begun with two new and mighty principles 
written by the finger of God in such potent characters as 
would remain through all time. — that the defense of wrong 
and the non-suppression of it are equally heinous. The 
world might not know of the lesson taught, or they might 
know and forget ; but the people who had suffered pun- 
ishment for the iniquity would never forget, nor would their 
children for a hundred generations. 1 hey might go into 
darkness in part, yet when any evil befell them in after 
generations they would ask why it came upon them ; they 
would search for the cause, and correct it. 

“ The situation in which we find this remnant of Ben- 


*Judges 21: 12. 


258 


IDENTIFIED. 


jamin at this time was unique. The awful practices of 
the past had been swept out of existence," and a new era of 
morality ushered in, almost like that after the flood. It is 
worthy of note that the four hundred virgins of Jabesh- 
Gilead were of the half-tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan, 
and the daughters of Shiloli were Ephraimites who with 
Benjamin were of the descendants of the beloved Rachel ; 
and it is of the deepest significance that it was God’s pur- 
pose in making this choice of wives for Benjamin, to have 
no intermixture of the seed of Leah, Bilhah, or Zilpah 
with that of Rachel. 

“ For four hundred years after this we have no history 
of the tribe of Benjamin until Saul (who was a Benja- 
mite) was anointed king of Israel, but on this I will not 
comment, as all of you are acquainted with the facts ; and 
as it has little bearing on our subject, I will pass on to 
the time of the revolt of the Ten Tribes from under the 
house of David. From that time forth Judah and Benja- 
min clung together under the house of David. The two 
tribes continued together until shortly before the Babylon- 
ish captivity. 

“Jeremiah was commissioned by God to utter his judg- 
ment against Judah and foretell the coming of the king ol 
Babylon, who destroyed Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, 
and carried the inhabitants into captivity. Yet Jeremiah 
in fulfilling his prophetic commission had the following 
strange message for Benjamin : ‘ O ye children of Benja- 
min, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusa- 
lem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of 
fire in Beth-haccerem : for evil appeareth out of the north, 
and great destruction.’* 

“ No such message had he for Judah, but in Lamenta- 
tions we read : ‘Judah is gone into captivity because of 
affliction, and because of great servitude : she dwelleth 


*Jer, 6: i. 


IDENTIFIED. 259 

among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her perse- 
cutors overtook her between the straits.’* 

He mourns over the captivity of Judah as an evil that 
had come, but utters no lamentation for Benjamin, because 
they were not in captivity. Years before this prophecy of 
Jeremiah was spoken, Isaiah was shown a vision of the 
Benjamites fleeing as they would when warned by God 
through Jeremiah. 

“ The king of Babylon had come to Aiath, passed to 
Migron : and at Michmash had laid up his carriages ; and 
had gone over the passages. I Then the prophet mentions 
that Ramah is afraid of the army of the Chaldeans. 
Ramah is about seventy miles north of Geba, and thirty 
miles south of Tyre, on the Mediterranean. 

“ Then, in vision, the prophet goes back to the land of 
Benjamin to see what had taken place there ; and telling 
of what he saw, says : ‘ Gibeah of Saul is fled.’ Then as 
if the people of Gallim, Laish, and Anathoth had not 
heeded the warning to flee (the people of Gallim were do- 
ing all they could to get the people of Laish and Anath- 
oth to start with them), the cry is heard: ‘ Lift up thy 
voice, O daughter of Gallim ’ (cry louder), ‘cause it to be 
heard unto Laish.’ O Anathoth, hasten, or you also will 
go into captivity. The prophet gets some comfort be- 
cause Madraeanah is removed ; the inhabitants gather 
themselves to flee. The Lord had another mission for 
them. Here are many cities mentioned as being in hot 
haste gathering themselves together to flee from a great 
danger of which they had been warned, while others had 
already fled. We must believe that there was a purpose, 
a mission, in all this for Benjamin. There was no 
CAPTIVITY FOR THIS TRIBE. Before Isaiah saw the vision 
as described above, Hosea, the oldest of the prophets, had 
also a vision of the same subject, in which he cries, 


*Lam. i: 3. 


tisa. lo: 28-31. 


26 o 


IDENTIFIED. 


‘ Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in 
Ramah.’* 

“ The shrill call of the trumpet was heard calling from 
hill-top to hill-top, echoing through the valleys from ham- 
let to village, from village to city, calling the tribe of Ben- 
jamin to flee. Why? Because the terrible of the nations, 
the army of Babylon, was coming to destroy them or 
carry them away as slaves. 

“‘Flee!’ 

“ Whither shall they flee? As the trumpet continued 
to peal forth its warning voice of danger for the Benja- 
mites, fear took possession of every heart ; they had 

NOT FORGOTTEN, THEY COULD NOT FORGET THE AWFUL 
PAST ; they would hasten, they would gather a'nd assem- 
ble, for here was another danger ; they would flee. ‘ Blow 
ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah : cry 
aloud in Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin. ’f Here 
again, are mentioned two principal cities of Benjamin, 
wherein the cornet and the trumpet were to be blown as 
a sign of danger at hand and as a warning to flee. 

“ But what can the crying aloud at Beth-aven have to 
do with the going after Benjamin? It can mean but one 
thing: Gibeah and Ramah, two chief cities of Benjamin, 
are mentioned, to call attention to the fact that it was the 
tribe of Benjamin that was meant, and having been 
warned by the loud blast of cornet and trumpet, they had 
fled. 

“ Beth-aven being chief city in Ephraim, the time would 
come when Ephraim would follow after Benjamin ; Ben- 
jamin having taken the lead, Ephraim would follow. 
Hosea uttered this prophecy sixty years before the ten 
tribes were carried away captive. In the next verse the 
Lord says: • Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of re- 
buke : among the tribes of Israel have I made known that 

*Hosea 5: 8. tHos. 5: 8-9. 


IDENTIFIED. 


261 


which shall surely be.’ In other words, when the Lord 
would rebuke Ephraim, their land would be desolate ; and 
Benjamin, according to the warning of the trumpet’s 
voice, spoken of by three prophets, and at three different 
times, would have fled from their land on account of fore- 
told danger. When we read of Beth-aven and Ephraim 
in connection with following Benjamin, w^e instinctively 
go to that great gathering of the ‘ Sheep of Bozrah ’ in 
Assyria previous to starting on their long journey to the 
‘ wilderness of the people.’ When the Lord says : 
‘ Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that 
which shall surely be,’ it can only mean that where w'e 
find Ephraim and the other tribes, we would find Benja- 
min. When Ephraim had at last reached the land which 
God had selected for them, as the first-born of the tribes of 
Israel, and from which land they were to gather in the treas- 
ure of the world ‘ to the utmost bounds of the everlasting 
hills,’ there they would find the tribe of Benjamin, where 
they had fled before Ephraim. Beth-aven would follow 
‘ after thee, O Benjamin.’ 

“Jeremiah warned Benjamin to flee at the time that the 
Chaldean army was coming, and Hosea and Isaiah dis- 
tinctly tell us that they did flee. Hosea says that they 
had fled to the place to which Ephraim was to come in 
the future. These two tribes were to be border nations in 
after years as they were in Canaan. 

“ Having such evidence before us, there is but one con- 
clusion to which we can come ; that this tribe for whom 
no person has sought, has a real existence to-day, has had 
a special training for a special mission and has fulfilled 
that mission as no other people could do. 

“ We find this tribe in the Scotch race, dwelling in 
Scotland, and the Scotch-Irish dwelling in the North of 
Ireland, who are one and the same people, a people whom 
the proudest race living to-day — the Anglo-Saxons — with 


262 


IDENTIFIED. 


many times their number, could not subdue, a race of men 
who have no superior, if they have any equal, either in- 
tellectually or physically ; a race of men who know no 
fear of man, who never since the time of the Pharoahs 
called any other nations master, not even the Romans, 
whom they compelled to act on the defensive. History 
tells us that the people who occupied the islands of Brit- 
ain, before the coming of the Scotch, are now extinct. 
God gave His promise that He would make a full end of 
all nations where tie would scatter Israel, but the 
Ephraimites could not subdue this people, an additional 
proof of their being one of the tribes of Israel. 

That the tribe of Benjamin should find their way to 
the British isles from Palestine, should not surprise any 
one, for these islands were known to the ancients. The 
Indian Sanscrit books refer to them as the ‘ Sacred Isles 
of the West.’ England is variously designated, but is 
usually called Sweta or Sweetain : '• Sweta Saela,’ or 

white cliffs is often used, which is literally the - Leucas 
Petra’ of Homer and ‘ Al-Fiown ’ in Gaelic. Homer 
places his Leucas Petra at the ‘ extremities of the earth in 
the ocean, near the setting sun.’ Baldwin says: ‘The 
Romans called all people outside of what was their first 
beginnings of empire, ‘ barbarians.’ But when they met 
the Scots and Piets in battle they afterwards called them 
the ‘ Fierce Britons.’ No foes had they ever before met 
except the ‘ terrible Cimbri,’ whom they could not sub- 
due. Julius Caesar and his Roman legions found a civil- 
ization in the White islands such as they found nowhere 
else in the northern countries. In this respect their con- 
dition was much higher than history, directed by Roman 
influence, is accustomed to admit. It would be an unwar- 
ranted assumption to suppose that they had at that time 
the highest condition of civilization they had ever known. 
They must have declined from a higher status, they could 


IDENTIFIED. 


263 


have had little or no communication with the east. But 
they still had intelligence, wealth and importance. We 
can see that their skill in many of the arts of civilized life 
was in no wise inferior to that of the Romans themselves.’ 

“ With reference to the change of language from 
Hebrew to the Celtic, it may be said that the names of 
places were always in part adopted by the incoming peo- 
ple. And although we see in Cimbri the forefathers of 
the German and the Anglo-Saxon races, yet how great a 
change and in such a short time ; Germans and English 
cannot now understand each other. The Benjamites 
would still have the remains of* the Canaanite’s language 
mixed with the Hebrew, and what is more likely than that 
the children should adopt in part the language of the peo- 
ple whom they found in Britain. 

“ There is a collection of laws known as the Senchus- 
Mor or Brehon laws, found in Ireland, which is older 
'than the Christian era ; and moreover they are written in 
a language that became dead in the ‘ fifth century.’ The 
greatest event described in this ancient Irish history is the 
conquest of the island by ‘ the sons of Milidh, who came 
from Spain with a fleet and a strong army.’ The date of 
their coming is uncertain, but it was about 600 B. C. ; 
while the time that Jeremiah told the Benjamites to flee’ 
was 613 B. C. If the Benjamites in fleeing went to 
Spain, and if it were God’s purpose to have them settle in 
Britain, how easy for Him to arrange itall? Coming from 
Spain no doubt accounts for their language being partly 
Celtic, and so they have been called Celts. 

“ Baldwin, writing on the Celtic dialect, says that 
‘ there is no trace of any Celtic dialect that does not be- 
long either to the Gadhelic or the Cymric family.’ This 
shows that there is a family i*esemblance of laqguages, a 
connection that in some way brings Cymric or Teutons in 
close relation with the ancient Gaelic of Scotland. The 


264 


IDENTIFIED. 


same authority says : ‘ There is no such fusion of tongues 
in any other country of Western Europe, and that proves 
that the civilization found in Britain must have been in- 
troduced by a foreign people. 

‘‘ ‘ The Scots settled first in Ireland, and extending them- 
selves by degrees, landed at last on the coast opposite to 
that island, and fixed habitations there.’* 

“ With the records of historians that the Scotch were 
strangers when they settled in these islands, coming from 
a south country about the very time that Jeremiah told 
Benjamin to flee ; that they had a civilization very much 
in advance of any other country of the north, and that this 
same people retain the feculiar characteristics that were 
implanted into the six hundred men left of Benjamin, a 
people whose language has much of the elements of the 
Cymric in it, a people whose history in every particular 
fits into every prophecy made concerning the Benjamites, 
it is reasonable to assume that they are of the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, the beloved son of Rachel. 

‘‘ At a certain point in Jacob’s life his very existence 
was bound up in the lad Benjamin. Therefore out of that 
intense love for Benjamin, the prayers of the father for the 
son were answered by God. Jacob was permitted to gaze 
from a much loftier height than from Mount Pisgah, to 
view distances stretching far beyond the bounds of the 
land of Canaan, beyond the time that Canaan was to be 
inhabited by Israel. As he gazed, his aged eyes caught a 
glimpse of the mission of Benjamin as planned by God, 
which was to extend into every clime, over the ‘ desolate 
heritages,’ and thus he gave expression to what he saw : 
^ Benjamin shall raven as a wolf, in the morning he shall 
devour the prey and at even he shall divide the spoil. ’f Al- 
though all the other tribes were gone into captivity, Ben- 
jamin would not. He was to go as free as the wolf ; he 


*Robinson. 


tGen, 49: 27. 


IDENTIFIED. 


265 


could never be a captive, for no captive could take the prey 
from an enemy, no captive would be allowed to ‘divide 
the spoil.’ 

“ ‘ He shall raven as a wolf!’ Strange words, for while 
Benjamin was to be fierce, and perhaps at times to be al- 
most savage in his mode of warfare, yet at heart he would 
be kind, generous, and a strong sense of justice would fill 
his soul; for we read ‘at night he shall divide the spoil.’ 
David charged those who took the prey to divide the spoil 
equally with those who remained at home with the stuff. 

“If settled down in a country large enough for his 
needs, Benjamin could not ‘raven as a wolf;’ his first 
dwelling must be small, so that as he increased, new 
homes must needs be sought out. So they are in the small 
area of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. 

“ ‘ It is well-known in history that the people who now 
inhabit Ireland and Scotland came as strangers first to Ire- 
land ; and that the present Scotch race emigrated, or cut 
themselves loose from the inhabitants of Ireland and set- 
tled in England and Scotland, thus showing themselves to 
be two distinct peoples. But when the Romans forced the 
Scotch to the north and west, England, the land they form- 
erly occupied, was filled up by the Anglo-Saxons. In the 
last half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the 
seventeenth century, the inhabitants of Ireland were forced 
to the south of the island, and the northern part was filled 
up by a pure race of Scotchmen, who yet hold that part 
of Ireland. History proves that the Scotch and the Scotch- 
Irish are the same people ; all things go to prove that the 
people of the south of Ireland are a different people.’* 

“ God knew that a people with certain characteristics 
were needed to be outposts, to be scouts wary and wise, 
before the ‘ desolate heritages ’ could be filled up. They 
must be a people fearless of danger when duty calls. To 

*See “ Mighty Conflict ot the Ages,” page 292. 


266 


IDENTIFIED. 


bring this about they must have a certain education, un- 
dergo training in a certain locality where mountains, crags 
and rocks abounded ; where they would be inured to 
hardships and dangers; where the bounds of the home 
land would be cramped and small, and they would be 
compelled to cry fur more room : ‘ Give place that I may 
dwell.’ All this was to be added to the dreadful Rock 
Rimmon training to fit them for God’s work in the world. 

“Joseph and Benjamin, sons of die beloved Rachel, had 
their lots bordering each other in Canaan, and it most 
surely appears that these border tribes have again been 
united, and were designed to be the joint heads of a great 
and united nation ; yet each tribe with a name of its own. 
Conjointly they had a great work to perform for the hu- 
man race throughout the world. If of one blood they 
would be more likely to work together in God’s way than 
if coming from different races. English honesty and en- 
terprise, and Scottish shrewdness, wariness and prompt- 
ness of action in case of emergency were all needed to 
open up the world and make neighbors of all. In the 
first occupation of the desolate heritages by these out- 
going people every precaution had to be taken to preserve 
themselves from utter extinction. Life became a constant 
battle ; and as we go back into history we find that ‘ every 
house had its palisades, every village had its blockhouses 
of refuge, and our fathers went everywhere armed and 
prepared for the fray.’ 

“ Although the English are courageous, yet they are not 
a cautious, wary people as are their northern neighbors. 
The Scotch are a people peculiarly fitted to be the fron- 
tiersmen of modern times, that these desolate heritages 
might be filled up and possessed by Israel. Not only had 
they the cruel savage to keep at bay, but the wild beasts 
of the forest as well. This life of warfare would tend to 
make the people who were forced to follow it savage in 


IDENTIFIED. 


267 


nature, selfish and brutal, unless they had long centuries 
of training in a way tending to make them the opposite. 

‘ In the evening he shall divide the spoil.’ They would 
love their fellows; of all people they must have a tender 
heart for those in trouble ; a forbearance toward enemies, 
a love for kindred, a love for home. A strong, religious 
sentiment was needed that the Gospel might be planted 
wherever the_y went, and that an example might be set. 
We find all these characteristics in the Scottish people. 
No other people are so wary, so cautious, and yet so fear- 
less of danger when duty calls, so alert and ready to strike 
when necessary. No people are so kind at heart to help 
a brother in need. No people have such a love of God, 
of friends, of home and native land. No people have such 
respect for the rights of others, and concur less with 
wrong doing. With a Scotchman, to think is to act, and 
to put down the wrong, if he can. 

“ Their roaming in every nook and corner of the earth 
is proverbial, and finds expression in the terse saying: 

‘ That if the North Pole is ever reached there will be two 
dwellers found there — a Scotchman and a crow.’ ‘ He 
shall raven as a wolf.’ 

“ Much could be added to this history of Benjamin, but 
I would like to make a summary of the whole plan of God 
laid down for the Twelve Tribes,” said Harvey. 

“ When Jacob, Moses or any of the prophets foretold 
any future event, it was God speaking through them. 
And all these words spoken in this way were inspired and 
must be fulfilled. The offer of a covenant promise came 
from God. Did not the Lord know man’s nature at this 
time? And having made his covenant and laws, can man 
defeat those plans? And if God did not fulfill them all, 
would he not take from his own glory? Would He not 
injure his own cause? Or (and speaking reverently) is 
God not amenable to his own laws? 


368 


IDENTIFIED. 


The desolate heritages have not been given to the 
Jews (Judah). Is there any prospect of their being taken 
from the race that now have them in possession, and be- 
ing given to Judah.? Yet they were all promised to the 
descendants of Abraham. 

“ The great point at issue between the arguments here- 
in and the general teachings of to-day is that it is claimed 
that we are the Gentiles, and yet spiritual Israel. If so, 
then why have not the nations of these desolate heritages 
been spiritualized and saved.? Why have they faded to a 
dying remnant.? Why is this remnant largely pagan.? 
God only can answer: ‘ Behold I will place salvation in 
Zion for Israel my Glory.’ ‘ I will assemble the sheep of, 
Bozrah.’ ‘ I will allure them into the wilderness.’ ‘ The 
yoke shall be broken because of the anointing.’ That wil- 
derness, that ‘ land will become too straight for them,’ be- 
cause God promised that they should have the ‘ blessings 
of the deep, of the heavens above’ to ‘ the utmost bounds 
of the everlasting hills.’ 

“ But respecting the people who dwell in these desolate 
heritages — ‘ The utmost bounds of the everlasting hills’ — 
we read -• ‘I will make a full end of all nations whither I 
have driven thee;’* also ‘they that war against thee shall 
be as nothing, and as a thing of naught.’! 

“ When we seek for even a remnant of the nations, 
many of them we cannot find ; they were as nothing when 
they contended against Israel ; and the fiat has gone forth, 
— they shall all perish. ‘ He shall also blow upon them 
and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take 
them away as stubble.’]; This has all come to pass; we 
know that He has blown upon them, that they have with- 
ered and as stubble have been taken away ; they have gone 
into the shadows of the past. 

“ Standing out before us in bold lines are the prophe- 

*Jer. 46: 28, tisa. 41: 12. tisa. 40: 24. 


IDENTIFIED. 


269 


cies, and the records of these people, which makes the 
most wonderful blending of prophetic and historic records 
ever seen in the world. God foretells and afterwards ful- 
fills, so that man’s faith may be strengthened. Men say : 
‘What a wonderful thing it is that we are the people of 
all the world who have the Gospel and all attendant 
blessings. Strange that the Lord passed by all the world, 
passed by Israel ! ’ • He did not pass by Israel — we are 
Israel. Men write of geography and religion, and won- 
der how it is that one part of the world is in darkness, su- 
perstition and eternal death, while other parts have the 
full light. They see not the great conflict that is being 
waged, and the contending forces arrayed against each 
other as prepared and controlled by the Lord. The Teu- 
tonic race are the Ten Lost Tribes, the English are 
the tribe of Ephraim, and the Scottish people are the 
tribe of Benjamin, — literal Israel and spiritual Israel, — 
and the Hebrews are the tribe of Judah. Prophecy was 
not spoken in a corner nor yet was it kept in a dark place ; 
it is kept before us. Yet we see how the only church 
then in existence was in error as to the character of Shiloh 
and His mission, and how the world went back into dark- 
ness before Luther’s time. Has the Church taken all that 
can be gleaned out of the Word of God.^ No man would 
say that all prophecy has been fulfilled. Judah did not 
know that they were fulfilling the details of prophecy 
when they crucified the Lord. Alexander the Great* and 
the Roman emperorst did not know that every day’s 
march, every campaign was but fulfilling the plans 
marked out in the Bible, ages before they lived. The 
Crusaders did not know that they were Israel when they 
went to drive out the infidel and unclean followers of Mo- 
hammed; they did not know that ages before it had been 
said that they would come back to Canaan and do that 

*Dan. 8, tDan. 7: 23. 


270 


IDENTIFIED. 


very act. All the world wondered that such rivers of the 
best blood of Europe should be spilt over what they 
thought was a righteous act, not knowing that it had been 
said that all nations that burden themselves with Jerusa- 
lem shall be cut in pieces.’* The early Apostolic Church 
did not know that they were the Church and the people 
that represented the fullness of the Gentiles before the 
House of Israel was brought in.-j* The Romish Church 
did not know that their every step downward, until they 
had made the world, the Church and the heart of man ut- 
terly desolate of any hope of happiness on earth or Jn 
heaven, having hidden the • All-atoning Sacrifice ’ from 
view, and set up ‘ the abomination that maketh desolate,’]; 
was recorded in the Book that they had in their posses- 
sion. The Germans did not know that they were the ten 
lost tribes, and that they were called the ten kings ;§ and 
when they gave their power to the beast (the Romish 
Church), for ‘one hour’ a (short time); and afterwards 
came to hate the whore and purged Rome with the sword, 
they did not know that God had put it into their hearts to 
fulfill his will, and to agree to give their power to the sup- 
port of the beast for a short time, so that the words of God 
might be fulfilled. And now that literal Israel has been 
identified with their wonderful history^ it is easily under- 
stood how they have ‘ flown together ’H and filled up the 
desolate heritages with unwalled cities, and that the very 
unrest of these people so often spoken of, is but the in- 
spiration of God, and that according to Scripture. 

“ We have become a multitude of nations.^ All this and 
much more has been accomplished in and by His people ; 
and while they were accomplishing it all, they knew not 
that it had been all written down ages before, and that they 
were fulfilling a destiny that it was impossible for theiD to 


*Zech. 12: 3, tRomans ii: 13-25. JDan. 8:23; 11:31; 12:23. §Rev. 17: 12-13. 
1113.60:5; 49:8. HGen. 17:5; 48:19. 


IDENTIFIED. 


271 


escape. It was but a part of the great plan of God’s cam- 
paign in carrying on the mighty conflict; it has all come 
about because of the all-potent words, ‘ Thus saith the 
Lord.’ 

‘‘ All these promises were made to our fathers for 

THE CHILDREN, AND WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE 
FATHERS. We have read our history that has astonished 
the world, has astonished us. ‘ Behold I will show you 
(Israel) marvellous things like unto your coming out of 
Egypt.’* 

‘‘ Some may ask, ‘ How has it all been brought about?’ 
Is there anything impossible in the long lapse of ages, 
with God, as the Mighty Helmsman, guiding and controll- 
ing every man’s, every nation’s career? ‘ Hath he not said 
it?’ ‘ Will he not do it?’ 

^ The purifying of the Benjamites was needed to quali- 
fy them for the mission given to them to fulfil. We know 
that Benjamin was schooled in that peculiar way in the 
early days ; we know that the Scotch have shown the 
world that they have gone through just such a school ; or 
they would not reveal such peculiar traits of character for 
so many centuries. We know that the English have been 
made to believe that they have rights which no other peo- 
ple have. We know that the Germans have found their 
beloved fatherland a place of rest, a home long sought af- 
ter before they would have such a never dying love for 
their country. Then, why can we not believe that it was 
brought about by the Allwise One in His own appointed 
way and time, and that He has triumphed gloriously. 

“ All other beliefs, teachings and doctrines must go down 
before His Almighty Word even as nothing, while that 
Word shall stand and shall come to pass. 

Christ as the prophet of the ages said, ‘ Heaven and 
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’f 


*Micah 7: 15. 


tMath, 24: 35. 


272 


IDENTIFIED. 


All these words of prophecy were the words of Christy 
and a prewritten history of the different tribes. The tes- 
timony and the law as written in God’s Word are repre- 
sentatives of great and mighty facts and lasting truths ; 
they are for the ages, not for a generation. 

“ I have given but the leading events and points in the 
history of the tribe of Benjamin, and the Scotch and 
Scotch-Irish race as I have found it in prophecy and ful- 
filled in history,” added Harvey, “ and even with that par- 
tial history I ask your forbearance for such a long essay, 
as nothing shorter would have brought out the points that 
identify the Scotch with the tribe of Benjamin.” 

As Harvey sat down Mr. Randell arose and said : “One 
thing I believe and we are all certain of, and that is that the 
speaker fully believes all he has just told us, and I can say 
that I believe God has inspired, him to understand this 
part of His prophesied plan and to give it to us at this 
time. I am also convinced that all these things that God 
in His goodness is showing to us, who are seeking to get 
His great truths out of His Word, are His inspired teach- 
ings, and for which each of us ought to give our Father 
whole-hearted praise. Before sitting down I wish to 
move a vote of thanks to our brother for taking so much 
pains in preparing this address. 

“ I can say, being a Scotchman, that I never listened to 
^ny truths so intensely interesting in my life, and although 
new, yet I fully believe that these few words of Scripture 
prophecy, respecting the tribe of Benjamin has been ful- 
filled in the Scottish people.” 


CHAPTER XVII. 


A LOST SOUL. 

Eighteen months have elapsed since the events recorded 
in the last chapter. 

These months had passed without any special event 
happening to our Watchers. Their meetings had been 
well attended during that time ; several new members had 
joined because each member had been faithful in teaching 
to others the truths of God — “ The meat in due season.”* 
Heart aches and joys had come to some of them, but they 
were still faithful to the true instincts of their better 
natures. 

One evening as Verna was walking leisurely home- 
ward, she heard a voice that sounded familiar, crying out.^ 

“ Oh, don’t, please, don’t take me to the police station. 

I am not (the word ilied upon her lips) as you say, 

but sick, very sick.” 

On the opposite side of the street a crowd of people had 
gathered. A policeman was holding by the arm a young 
girl wliom he had found lying on the sidewalk. This 
officer of the law had rung up for the police patrol, and 
was now waiting for it to come. There was not the least 
bit of sympathy in either his face or his manner. A man 
that was standing by, said ; 

“ That policeman is far more degraded than that girl, 
and he shows it in his face and in his beastly manner, and 
yet he is given a place as an upholder of the law of God 


*Math. 24: |5. 
19 


A LOST SOUL. 


274 

and man. If there was only one here and there of his 
stamp it would not seem so bad, but when far the greater 
number of the minions of the law are the offscourings of 
humanity, it is a monstrous crime against earth and 
heaven. In fact, it is as if the cities of this earth were 
policed by hell itself.” 

No one knew this to be the case more acutely than did 
Verna, and as she crossed the street to see what she could 
do to help a girl who had once been pure and good, she 
said to herself: ‘‘My whole soul recoils from going near 
that man and speaking to him. Oh, why is it that such 
men are placed in power over others.?” 

These thoughts passed through her mind in less time 
than it takes to tell them, but the feeling of disgust was 
driven from her mind when she saw who the young girl 
was. Never was there more sympathy in any voice or a 
more tender look in any face, as she cried : 

“Minnie! Minnie Hall I ” 

All turned to Verna and made way for her as she sprang 
to the side of Minnie, for it was indeed her Sunday School 
scholar of the past. 

Verna put one arm around Minnie and drew her form 
close to her and said : “ Dear Minnie, how has all this 
come about.? ” 

Intoxicated as Minnie was, the sight of her old teacher 
brought her quickly to the little sense of right that still re- 
mained within her, and she sobbed out: “I cannot tell 
you how it all came about. Won’t you take me home 
with you .? ” 

“Most gladly, I will,” she answered. 

Then she turned to the officer. “ Let me take charge 
of this girl; I have known her for years.” 

“ No, lady, I can’t do it. I found her lying on the side- 
walk drunk, and I must yank her.” 

“ Is not this her first ofience, as far as you know.? ” 


A LOST SOUL. 


275 


“ Shure ! But what’s the diff? ” 

“ I will take charge of her and see what I can do for 
her. For the present offence you must not arrest her.” 

“Yes, but I’ve got ter, bekase I have not roped any one 
in afore the dav.” 

“ Well I should think you would be glad that such had 
been the case,” said Verna. 

“ Thin, begorra, they will think I have been in the sa- 
loon meself, instid of tindin me bezness.” 

Then you refuse to let her come with me?” 

“ Shure ! ” 

“ Just then the patrol came hurrying up, and poor Min- 
nie was lifted bodily into it and driven rapidly away. 

Words would fail to tell of the sadness and righteous 
indignation that filled the soul of Verna as "she followed 
Minnie to the station. From the very first, was she not 
led astray by members of the church? When repentance 
came, was she not driven back into sin by the false lights 
that had been lighted and kept burning by the very heads 
of the church itself? Emblazoned on those lamps were 
“ Selfishness, covetousness, lovers of pleasure more than 
lovers of God. Having a form of Godliness, but deny- 
ing the power thereof.” 

“Perilous times” indeed, when such evils exist in the 
Church unchallenged by any. 

And now was not Minnie drunk by law? Hell’s har- 
vesters licensed by the law of the land to sell hell’s bever- 
age? A voice said “Yes” to all these questions that 
came into Verna’s mind. 

“ If I had the power, how quickly would I drive all 
such iniquitous laws and practices from this earth ! ” 

With her thoughts busy going over the past and the 
present troubles she was hurrying along to see what she 
could do for this unfortunate girl, when she met her own 
minister, the Rev. Dr. Houston. 


376 


A LOST SOUL. 


In a few words she told him the story as far as she knew, 
and then said : “I am so glad that I have met you at 
this time. You will come with me, and we will get that 
girl to my home ? ” 

“You will please excuse me at this time,” said he; 
“ you know that I do not like to get mixed up in any 
affair like that. In fact, I do not think that my people 
would like it, if they knew that I had taken any part in 
any case that savours of a police station.” 

Verna almost lost control of her usually calm demeanor 
as she said : “Is this not the work of the Master, the very 
work that the shepherds have pledged themselves to do?” 

“Miss Rodell, I propose to be my own judge of the 
places to which I go; also what I consider to be my 
duties.” 

This answer was given with such an air of superiority 
that Verna said to herself: “So little like the Master.” 
To the minister she said : “ Then you do not propose to 
obey the command of Christ, and leave the ninety and 
and nine, to seek the lost sheep of the flock ? ” 

To this searching question the Doctor of Divinity made 
no answer, but as he saw the look of pitying scorn on 
Verna’s face, he felt that -perhaps he had been impolitic, 
at least, in what he had said, so to mend matters, as he 
thought, he said : 

“ I have promised my family to go driving this evening, 
and they would be much disappointed if I did not return 
for them in time.” 

“ But it may be that your little pleasure will be eternal 
woe for poor Minnie Hall.” 

“ You surely do not believe in any such nonsense as 
that?” 

“Most surely I do ; and from what I know of the past, 
if her soul is lost, a great part of the responsibility will be 
laid at your door,” said she, as she hurried away, feeling 


A LOST SOUL, 


277 


helpless and alone, and also annoyed that so much valu- 
able time had been lost. 

When she arrived at the station Minnie was in a swoon, 
and she at once suggested that she be sent to the hospital, 
to which the Chief agreed, and called the ambulance. 

Verna hailed a passing car and got to the hospital in 
time to see Minnie carried in. When the doctor had 
examined her he said that her constitution was almost des- 
troyed, and he could say nothing more until she recovered 
consciousness. He promised, however, to give Minnie all 
the attendance necessary, and also to let Verna know 
when she could see her. 

The lifetime of such girls generally averages about five 
years, but with Minnie it was to be much shorter. A 
weak constitution and a conscience more or less tender, 
had driven her far down very quickly. 

The doctor sent for Verna next day, saying that her old 
pupil had asked for her. 

Verna hastened to see her, praying earnestly that she 
might be used in some way to save her from such a life. 
Very affecting was the meeting between them : Love and 
sympathy on the part of Verna, and the dark despair of 
Minnie. 

To all of Verna’s most earnest pleadings as to God’s 
continued love, and of the shed blood of Christ in token of 
that love, her only answer was : “My soul is too black, 
mv shame too great to ever receive pardon from a right- 
eous God, or a loving Saviour.” 

“ Then why did you send for me if you will not listen 
to anything I have to say to you in the name of my 
Saviour.^” 

“ I wanted to thank you for all your kindness, all your 
tender sympathy, and to say goodby. Miss Rodell, you 
are the only one in this world who ever showed any kind- 
ness to me after my mother died. You know that I have 
been alone all this time, with no one to lead me.” 


278 


A LOST SOUL. 


“ But you will ^et better and you will yet be a good 
girl.’’ 

“No, never! I have something here that will change 
all this shame and guilt into oblivion ; something we girls 
always keep for just such a time as this. My dear Miss 
Rodell, come and kiss me ; yes, come and kis^ my polluted 
lips just once before I die.” 

Little idea had Verna as to why Minnie wanted to kiss, 
her goodby ; nevertheless, she bent over and kissed her 
lips. 

Then Minnie said : “ You are good and true, and I 
wish I were like you. Goodby, my dear teacher,” and 
before Verna could realize what it all meant, Minnie 
raised a vial to her lips and swallowed its contents. 

Verna tried to arrest her hand, but she was too quick 
for her, and it was empty when Verna took it from her. 
Then she read on it “ Prussic Acid.” 

“ With a wild scream she ran to the door and cried: 
“ Help ! help ! ” 

When the nurse came in she said to her: “ Minnie has 
taken Prussic Acid ; get a doctor, quick I quick ! ” 

All the efforts that were made to save her proved fruit- 
less, for she resisted the doctor as long as she had her 
senses, and by that time it had done its deadly work on a 
broken-down constitution. 

When Verna was told that Minnie was dead, she wailed 
out the words: “Minnie is 1-o-s-t, 1-o-s-t 1 ‘In hell 
she lifted up her eyes in torments!”’* and then fainted 
away. 

The shock to that sensitive nature was so terrible that it 
was a long time before she revived ; then her first words 
were: “ Poor, poor Minnie ! I did love you, but I am 
afraid that I did not love you enough to save you.” 

And then Verna wept many tears. Her sorrow was 


*Luke 16: 23. 


A LOST SOUL. 


279 

too deep for words ; day and night silently she wept. At 
times when she thought of the cause of it, her indignation 
knew no bounds. 

She took no part in the burial of Minnie. I will not 
go through the same experience again,” said she ; “ if a 
funeral service is to be had only in one way from those 
who take charge of them, in cases like this, I have had 
enough of them ” 

The circumstances were too terrible for her to follow 
that corpse to the potter’s field. 

There was but one thought that filled her mind through 
these days and nights of sorrow — “ And the books were 
opened.” What there was written in the book of Min- 
nie’s life against her she well knew, and also the awful 
sentence. Then she thought: “There will be other 
books opened that will have to do with her book'' 

Then a strange thought came into her mind : “ It is not 
just for that girl to suffer for the selfishness and greed of 
others. It is not just that she alone should suffer.” 

Then she almost gave expression to these words: 
“ Thank God, there is a day of judgment coming when 
all the books will be opened, and each will bear his own 
share of shame and guilt.” 

This was something more added to Verna’s life’s bur- 
den. Tearfully she had told her whole story to Jesus, but 
the future of this chapter was so dark'and mysterious, that 
she could not fathom it. 

Human sympathy and human counsel she craved, but 
to whom could she go.^ Not to her minister. An 
impassable gulf now yawned between them, and she was 
not the one who had opened it. But it was there, and as 
far as she could see that gulf must grow deeper and wider. 
Tell her story to some one she must, for it was too heavy 
to carry alone. Then she remembered that she could go 
to Zion’s Watchers,— her own little company. There she 
would get both sympathy and counsel. 


28 o 


A LOST SOUL. 


At the next regular meeting of the Watchers, after the 
opening exercises, Verna said : 

“ It is some time since I have been among you, and 
meanwhile I have had days and nights of great sorrow, 
that I want to tell you something about.” 

“ That is just what we are here for. Miss Rodell. We 
are here to sympathize with and help one another,” said 
the chairman. 

Verna then gave a history of Minnie Hall’s life, from 
the time she knew her until the tragedy of the end. She 
had a sad story to tell, and it came so very close to her 
heart, that she recited it in such a way as to bring tears to 
the eyes of nearly all those present. 

When she came to tell of the conversation with her min- 
ister, Rev. Dr. Jolpi Houston, she said: “ It may be said 
that that which I am about to speak of is a breach of confi- 
dence, but it is the particular part of the sad story, outside of 
the ending of Minnie’s life, and you will please not speak 
of it outside of this circle. 

When she had finished her story she said by way of 
comment, “We have talked of the ‘ Perilous times ’ that 
Paul speaks of coming in the ‘ latter days,’ but I must con- 
fess it is all a dream to me as yet. Why should such at- 
ter disregard be shown to the higher law of God and 
Christ by the very ones who have taken the most solemn 
vows upon themselves to carry out that law by example 
and precept.^” 

As Verna asked this question, Mr. Randell arose to give 
an answer to it. 

“ I am deeply touched with the mournful tale you have 
told us,” said he. “In my own experience I have had sim- 
ilar trials in some things, that have caused me to study up 
this question, and I hope that the light I may throw upon 
it, will be of some comfort to you. Miss Rodell, and to all 
of us. 


A LOST SOUL. 


281 

“ In as few words I can, I will outline what I believe to 
be God’s plan of the ages as I find it in the Bible. This 
world was created to be the battle-gro«md of the forces of 
Good and Evil. God permitted Satan to use all the pow- 
er he could possibly bring to bear against the forces of 
Good. In fact, this world was given to Satan as his king- 
dom for a time. So we read, ‘ The devil sinneth from the 
beginning. For this purpose, the Son of Man was mani- 
fested ; that he might destroy the works of the devil.’* 

“ In the fullness of time Christ came and began the work 
of restitution. After he ascended into Heaven, in His 
plan, ‘ a people were to be taken out of the Gentiles for 
His name,’! which was spoken of as the ‘ fullness of the 
Gentiles This people taken out of the Gentiles, and 
the fullness of that church, transpired in the Apostolic 
Church. 

“ Then we read in the book of Daniel a clear history of 
the Dark Ages, following the Apostolic Church, known as 
‘the overspreading of transgressions’ until the saints of 
the Most High (the Apostolic Church) were (all) worn 
out.’§ Then comes the bringing in of the house of Israel, 
as Paul tell us of in Romans ii : 3-5. This remnant of 
the seven thousand were of Israel, not Judah. 

“ The reformation among the Teutons was the bringing 
in of Israel into the ‘Bond of the covenant,’! ‘the life 
from the dead.’^ 

“ The next great chapter in the conflict was the outpour- 
ing of the Holy Spirit upon the house of Israel. ‘ Israel 
whom I have chosen — I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, 
and my blessing upon thine offspring.** 

“The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church of 
the Reformation, which was ‘Lost Israel, ’tt resulted in the 
preaching of the Gospel by Israel as a witness to all na- 

*i John 3: 8, also Luke 4: 5-6. tActs 15: 13-16. $Rom. 11:25. 

§Dan. 7: 25, also Dan. 9: 27. llEzek. 20: 37. IfRom. ii: 15. 

**Is. 44: 3. ttMath. 15: 24. 


283 A LOST SOUL. 

tions. When that was accomplished, ‘ then shall the end 
come.’* 

“No doubt some of you will ask, ‘ The end of what?’ 
The only answer that can be given is, ‘ The end of the 
Gospel Age.’ 

“ Eight years ago, in the year 1S94, all nations of the 
world had had the Gospel preached to them excepting the 
country of Thibet, in the heart of Asia. In that year this 
people received the messengers of King Jesus and a few 
witnesses were gathered in from that people as converts to 
the Gospel of the Kingdom. From that day the intense 
interest of former years in foreign missions has seemed to 
wane, if the giving of money is an indication of interest, 
for in the eight years intervening between 1S94 and 1902 
there has been a falling off in the amount of money giv^en 
by the whole Evangelical Church of the world, just one- 
half. 

“ In other words, in 1894 there was given two dollars 
for foreign missions for every one that is given now in 
1903. The Gospel was to be preached to all nations to 
gather in a certain number of witnesses from every nation 
and people over all the earth. All this was in God’s plan 
and to suit His purposes, and there will not be one wit- 
ness less or one witness more than was in the number 
named by God from the time before the foundations of the 
earth were laid, as the Apostle James testifies when speak- 
ing of these very chapters in the world and in the Church. 
He says, ‘ Known unto God aie all these things from the 
beginning of the world.’ 

“ But to come back to ‘the time when the end shall 
come.’ In the same chapter that we find the foregoing 
words, the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, Christ says : 
‘This generation shall not pass till all these things shall 
be fulfilled.’ 


*Math. 24: 14. 


A LOST SOUL. 


28^-^ 

“He did not mean the generation that was living at the 
time when He spoke ; but the generation that would be 
living at the time of His coming again. And the ‘all 
things’ that would come to pass in the time of the genera- 
tion which would be living then were the things that He 
had just told His disciples of in that chapter. 

“ That chapter following the preaching of the Gospel to 
all nations would begin as Christ said : ‘ Because iniquity 
shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.’ 

“ This lack of interest in missions after the Gospel had 
been preached to all nations as a witness is the beginning 
of the ‘ perilous times,’ the time ‘ when the love of many 
shall grow cold.’ 

“The ‘ perilous times ’ come into the church and the 
world just previous to Christ coming again. 

“ Paul writes to the Thessalonians of the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ : ‘ That ye be not soon shaken in mind, 
or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter 
as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no- 
man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not 
come except there come a falling away first, and that man 
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.’* 

“ We are to-day living in the beginning of the ‘peril- 
ous times,’ the ‘ falling away.’ Furthermore, the genera- 
tion now living is the generation when all these things 
shall come to pass ; and still more startling is the fact that 
eight years of this generation are numbered with the past, 
and now written in history. All the foregoing chapters 
are in God’s plan of the ages. 

“ Now we come back to the question that Miss Rodell 
asked : ‘ Why should such utter disregard be shown to the 
higher law of God and His Christ by the very ones who 
have taken the most solemn vows to teach by precept and 
example ? ’ 


*2 Thess. 2: 2-3. 


284 


A LOST SOUL. 


“ In this falling away, Satan is the leader, and in his 
craftiness first seeks out the leaders and causes them to be 
‘ lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud — lovers of 
pleasure more than lovers of God.’ 

“ This is history repeating itself once again in frail hu- 
man nature. We go back into the past and find that the 
priests in Samuel’s time were so greedy of gain that ‘ men 
learned to abhor the offering of the Lord.’* 

‘‘ God, speaking of Eli, said : ‘ Wherefore kick ye at 
my sacrifice * * * and honorest thy sons above me, to 
make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings 
of Israel my people. ’-j* 

“ Then further down the history of the Church in the 
time of Malachi, the prophet, the Lord asks : • Who is 
there among you that will shut the doors for nought.^ 
neither do ye kindle a fire on mine altars for nought. ’J 

“ So you see. Miss Rodell, when you could not get a 
minister to perform the last sad rites for those you so dear- 
ly loved, as in the cases of Ethel Wood and Minnie Hall, 
because they had not previously supported their church, or 
unless money was given as payment for the services, hu- 
man nature is but repeating itself in the leaders of the 
Church of this day. 

“Then, in the next chapter, the Lord pleads with the 
priests, the sons of Levi : ^ My covenant was with him, of 
life and peace — the law of truth was in his mouth — he 
walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many 
away from iniquity.’ 

“ To whom can the people go to for knowledge if not 
to the leaders.? So the Lord still pleads with the priests 
of Israel, and says: ‘For the priest’s lips should keep 
knowledge, and they (the people) should seek the law at 
' his mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. 


*i Sam. 2: 13-17. 


ti Sam. 2: 29. 


$Mal. i: 10. 


A LOST SOUL. 285 

But ye are departed out of the way, ye have caused many 
to stumble at the law.’* , 

“ God sends forth a terrible note of warning to unfaith- 
ful shepherds : ‘ Thus saith the Lord God unto the shep- 
herds ; woe be to the shepherds that do feed themselves ! 
should not the sjiepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat 
and ye clothe ye with the wool, — but ye feed not the 
flock. ’I ‘ I will require the flock at their hantis, and 
cause them to cease from feeding the flock ; neither shall 
the shepherds feed themselves any more ; for I will de- 
liver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat 
for them.’]; 

In the time of Christ He said of the leaders of the 
Church : ‘ Do not after their works for they say and do 
not, for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, 
and lay them upon men’s shoulders, but they themselves 
wdll not move them with one of their fingers. ’§ 

“ The Apostolic Church and the world went back into 
darkness from the false teaching of the leaders. 

“ So it will be in this the close of the Gospel Age. The 
‘ last days,’ the-‘ perilous tim.es,’ for the Devil will make 
his first onslaught on the leaders. He will appear to them 
as an angel of light.’ |1 

“ No wonder that you. Miss Rodell, cannot understand 
why such selfishness and utter indifierence to the needs of 
others is manifested by so many of the leaders. The his- 
tory of the Church is clearly set forth in Christ’s warning 
to the Church of Laodicea, which I believe means the 
Church of to-day, at this the close of the Gospel Age. In 
the great institutions that men have built up for themselves 
upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ, wherein the leaders 
have made places for themselves, with salaries ranging 
from $1,500 to $20,000 a year, what is more unlikely than 

*Mal. 2: 5-8. 1Ezek. 34: 2-3, JEzek. 34: 10. 

§Math. 23: 14; also John 2: 16. II2 Cor. ii: 14-15. 


286 


A LOST SOUL. 


that they should take upon themselves the burdens of the 
poor and vile of the world? 

“ How truly Christ describes them : ‘ Because thou 

sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need 
of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and 
miserable, and poor and blind and naked.’* Read the 
terrible note of warning given to them in that Scripture, 
and you will understand it all. 

“ V\’e rejoice to know that there are yet good and true 
ministers and people in the churches, although it has been 
our misfortune to meet the advance guard of the enemy, 
for if we believe prophecy, we must believe that ‘ Evil 
men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving 
and being deceived. ’t 

“ Then we are told that the ‘ love of money is the root 
of all evil.’! 

“ We can readily believe this when we know that all 
the great nations of the past went down because of greed 
on the part of the rulers ; and so also has the Church in 
every age gone down under this love of money, instead of 
the love of the souls of men. 

“ This love of money leads men’s hearts away from all 
sympathy for others, all love for God and man.” 

“ Wherein do the ministers, the dealers in Salvation, 
* deal treacherously ’§ with God and His Christ?” asked 
Frank Cowper. 

Too many of these men are more anxious to gain 
glory for themselves than to gain it for God and His 
Christ, from precious souls whom they might have been 
instrumental in saving. 

“ The sensational lectures, not sermons, are given for 
that purpose, that they may have a large following to swell 
their salaries and gain honor for themselves. This fact 
is proven by the jealousies that exist among them. 

•Rev. 3: 14-18. t2 Tim. 3: 13. ti Tim. 6: 6-10. §Isa. 24: 15-16. 


A LOST SOUL. 


287 


“ No wonder Cb.rist cries out : ‘ My leanness, my lean- 
ness, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacjierous- 
ly, yea the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacher- 
ously.’ 

In the churches of to-day salaries are paid to minis- 
ters ranging all the way from $30,000 down to $300. 
This being the case, it shows plainly that the rich and the 
poor even among the ministers are separated from each 
other as far as they can be. 

With the cry of millions of lost souls going up to 
Heaven each year, and the struggle of so many helpless 
ones for the bare necessaries of life, I would rather take 
my chances of starvation and of getting to Heaven by that 
pathway, than to travel by the flowered pathway of any 
salaried minister receiving over $3,000 a year. 

“I have no hesitation in saying that the minister who 
receives the $300, or a bare competency, is doing God’s 
work with far more acceptance than the man with the 
larger salary. He is more in touch with the sorrows of 
the masses than those who draw the big salaries. The 
whole teaching of Scripture goes to show, that unless we 
bear a cross, there will not be any 'crown given us to 
wear. 

“ It takes some courage to say these things,” continued 
Mr. Randell, “ but there is an old saying and a true one, 
‘ He who is silent consents.’ It is a very painful thing to 
me to know all this. But Scripture is plain and 
speaks boldly, and so we who see these things must speak 
out against them or be held accouiitable. 

“The Apostle Peter tells us very plainly of the false 
teachers who shall arise in the time of the end, which is 
this our day. 

“ ‘ Through covetousness shall they with feigned words 
make merchandise of you. * * * an heart they have 

exercised with covetous practices ; cursed children which 


288 


A LOST SOUL. 


have forsaken the right way, following the way of Balaam 
who loved the wages of unrighteousness.’* 

‘‘Who can say that such large salaries is not ‘ making 
merchandise’ of the people of God, making gain of the 
great plan of Salvation, to get honor and riches for them- 
selves. No wonder the Scripture says, ‘ By reason of 
whom the way of truth is evil spoken of.’t 

“The hard-pressed mechanic, the overworked mill-girl, 
the tired house-servant, and other weary toilers see noth- 
ing in the way of Salvation for them except it may be to 
take something more from their scant earnings. The 
preachers, Peter says, “ Shall speak great swelling words 
of vanity ;’ and we know that they say to the people, 

‘ Come and join our church, all respectable people belong 
to some church.’ 

“ Peter, still speaking of churches and church members, 
says, ‘ While they promise them liberty, they themselves 
are the servants of corruption. ’J 

“A man who has joined a church, unconverted, is in 
a worse state than before he joined ; and so Peter says in 
the same verse, ‘ For of whom a man is overcome, of the 
same is he brought in bondage.’! is still under the 

bondage of sin, and under the additional bondage of pay, 
pay to the Church. As this course is followed more and 
more by the Church and the world, the poverty of the 
masses will also grow worse and worse. 

“ So when unregenerated men, as ministers or as world- 
lings, see the helpless, poverty-stricken state of the great 
majority, each man will try the more to save himself (not 
his neighbor) from such a state. 

“ The duty of the shepherds is plainly set forth in the 
New Testament : — 

“ Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the 
oversight thereof, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; 

+2 Peter 2: 19. 


*2 Peter 2: 3. 


t2 Peter 2: 2. 


A LOST SOUL. 2S9 

neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being en- 
samples to the flock.’ 

“ In closing, I would say that the future of the Church 
is dark, and it becomes each one of us to watch that we 
are not found among the number whose > Love will grow 
cold,’ whose crown another will take. Should that day 
ever come to any one of us, it will be a day of ‘ desperate 
sorrow.’ 

“We think it hard to lose the fellowship of those who 
were once our leaders, but we must not forget our Great 
Leader is our God and King. He is the friend that stick- 
eth closer than a brother ; He has promised that ‘ He will 
never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ ” 

Samuel Barnes, another of the Watchers, said: “ Miss 
Rodell has told us a sad story, but there is one more that 
can be told as the fruits of that ‘ Sock Social,’ or rather 
from the game of chance that was part of the show. 

“ The prize given to tlie winner was several volumes of 
well-bound books. This prize was won by Leanord Bald- 
win, the son of the treasurer of the church, who voted with 
Dr. John Houston and others to have the ‘ Sock Social ’ 
and the game of chance in the church, to help raise Dr. 
Houston’s salary. 

“Mr. Baldwin’s son has become a confirmed gambler. 
Two weeks ago Mr. Baldwin went to Dr. Houston and 
asked him to speak to his son against the vice of gam- 
bling. The pastor consented and sought the young man, 
whom he found in his rooms. The minister began his 
lecture, but before he had concluded, the young man laid 
his hand on his arm and said : 

“ ‘ Do you see those splendid volumes on that table?’ 

“ ‘ Yes.’ 

“‘Well,’ said the young man, ‘those volumes were 
won by me at the ‘Sock Social’ held in your church; 
they were my first venture, and cost me only twenty-five 


20 


290 


A I.OST SOUI.. 


cents. Being so successful at first, I have gone on until I 
have become a gambler. But for that first lesson in 
gambling, given under the patronage of your church, I 
should never have become a gambler.’ 

“ ‘ I have talked to the young man,’ said the young min- 
ister, and he said : ‘ I am all right. My minister and my 
father taught me how to gamble, and why should any one 
else try to make me change. If they are all right for the 
next world, so am I.’ With cold indifference he contin- 
tinued : ‘ Mr. Barnes, I do not wish to be troubled any 
more by you. Please leave me now.’ 

“ I came away from him with a sad, sad heart, and I 
thought of the time when the books would be opened, and 
retribution would come to the one who was most guilty. 
It is well for the father of that son that retribution had 
come to him in this life, as it gives him a chance to re- 
pent.” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


HOMES FOR THE MASSES. 

At a meeting of the Watchers some weeks after that re- 
corded in the last chapter, William Spencer, said : 

“ I wish to ask a question, but before I ask it I wish to 
tell my story. As some of you know, my father and my 
mother had once a good home of their own with many 
comforts, but because of the greed of others,, in the hard 
times of 1S90, it was taken from them. My father has 
since gone to his reward. Mother has become almost 
blind, and my whole earthl}; ambition is to get a home of 
our own for her. 

I have striven hard since I became of age. I have 
never lost a day in nine years. I have not smoked or 
drunk, or spent any money in any way, but as yet I have 
gathered very little toward my purpose. The high rent 
that we have to pay eats up the surplus, and the struggle 
so far has been a failure. I am not complaining, for I 
know of many who are in a far worse condition than I 
am, and my sympathies are with them in their hard lot; 
but this I know, that no family, people or nation can be 
happy unless they have homes of their own. 

The coming of Christ will mean little to the strug- 
gling, weary toilers of this world, unless the tremendous 
oppression exercised by the greedy, who have the power 
to oppress is taken away, so that each man who desires a 
home of his own shall have one that no man can take from 
him. 


292 


HOMES FOR THE MASSES. 


“ Now I confess that I do not know so much of the 
truths in God’s Word respecting what shall be in the time 
of the reign of our King as to understand what Mr. 
Barnes meant when 'he said that in that day ‘ Every man 
shall hav'^e a home of his own.’ 

“ I want to know what is said in God’s Word about such 
a happy state of matters in that glad day when all man- 
kind shall acknowledge the brotherhood of man.” 

Harvey was the first to respond to the question of Wil- 
liam Spencer. He said : 

“ This is a subject that has touched me deeply, as I 
have had a like experience myself, and besides I have been 
a great deal among the struggling masses and know much 
of their deep sufferings. This question of bread and but- 
ter, and hornes, or even a shelter, has become the great 
question, the one above all others, to mankind. To the 
majority it has become of far more importance than Sal- 
vation or eternal life. 

“Just at this time we have come to a climax. There 
cannot be a doubt that the world has come to the crest of 
advanced civilization. Not that more progress may not 
yet be made in the arts and sciences, even until it become 
a mighty load for the human mind to carry ; but Chris- 
tians look for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to bring har- 
mony out of a state of conflict, and cure all these evils, 
and bring in the time when the brotherhood of man will 
be more than a mere name. But when the rich are be- 
coming richer and the poor poorer, decade after decade, 
we are perplexed and troubled. The power of gold is an 
authority of itself, backed by all the constitutional govern- 
ments of the world, to keep these two streams of human- 
ity into separate channels, condemning the greater part of 
mankind to perpetual servitude. That power the rich will 
exercise regardless of the consequences to the sufi'ering 
poor, to themselves, or to their children, because the gov- 


HOMES FOR THE MASSES. 


293 


ernments are composed of men with the same greed im- 
planted in their own hearts. Satan coveted the power of 
God ; and man being sold unto sin, covets power over his 
fellow. 

“ No wonder the Christian is troubled and perplexed 
with such a picture before him. He has been taught to 
look for the Millennium, to work and pray for it; he 
looks abroad over the earth, and sees heathen nations be- 
ing civilized but not Christianized ; he sees in the Chris- 
tian world, the higher law of Christ regarded less every 
day. 

“ The Christian reads : ‘He that hath two coats let him 
impart to him that hath none.’ ‘ Love thy neighbor as 
thyself,’ and ‘ Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so ful- 
fil the law of Christ.’* But instead of that law being car- 
ried out, he sees burdens being made heavier for humanity 
as time speeds on, till they become well-nigh unbearable. 
He sees the commands of God set aside more and more, 
and he begins to think that by the time the heathen world 
is entirely converted, the work will have to be done over 
again in the Christian world. 

“ Many say that the world is growing better. If so, 
then oppression should cease, man’s cruelty to man should 
be a receding shadow, instead of a lengthening and deep- 
ening one every succeeding year. 

“ If oppression is on the increase then the spread of the 
Gospel is on the decrease, because love to man is the 
first principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and one of 
the first fruits that shows itself in a converted soul. 

“ The time when the human race shall have all things 
restored to them, and when all ‘shall have full happiness 
will not be, cannot be, until men shall love their neighbors 
Rs themselves. 

“ If oppression and poverty flourish side by side with 

*GaI. 6: 2 . 


294 HOMES FOR THE MASSES. 

opulence and greed, then slowly but surely the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ will cease to be the dominant factor in any 
church, or in the world. This is not the cry of a pessi- 
mist, but an attempt to picture the past and peer into the 
future. The injustice, robbery and greed on the one side, 
and the utter hopelessness of the other, is something that 
no pen can portray, no tongue express. Yet this is what 
is called the advanced civilization of the world. The 
question that is beginning to take shape in many minds is, 
whether our civilization is to go down as others have, by 
the same curse of greed, with all the additional knowledge 
and light, scientific and spiritual. 

“Monopoly means poverty to the masses, poverty 
means ignorance, ignorance means vice, and vice means 
lawlessness, all of which bring a complete separation from 
the Church and all that is good. Monopoly will soon 
make two very distinct classes — the rich and the very 
poor. 

“ Our theology has taught us that there would be a grad- 
ual increase of ‘ peace and good will toward men’ through 
the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, until the 
whole world would proclaim ‘ Holiness to the Lord.’ The 
thoughtful Christian sees no weapon formed that can slay 
this monster Greed ; no force in the world, within the 
compass of his vision, except the judgments of the Lord, 
that can stamp out this madness of the human heart. 

“ But that is not in the theology that he has been taught. 
This very hope of the Christian of all ages has been his 
inspiration for personal activity to bring in this grand and 
glorious time when all men should know the Lord. It in- 
spired Paul as the Apostle of the Gentiles ; it has inspired 
all true Christians. Christianity could not live without it ; 
it was needed, and every one will get his full reward. 

“ But this feeling of disappointment that is settling down 
over many hearts suggests this thought, very timidly at 


HOMES FOR THE MASSES. 


295 


first, yet it comes. Perhaps we have not had a right in- 
terpretation of the way the Millennium was to come. 

“ The Christian may rest assured that God’s hand holds 
the helm ; He is not steering by charts made to suit some 
new turn in the mighty conflict. Remember that God 
from the beginning made all the plans for the future ; none 
have been changed, none have failed ; everything moves by 
these plans, every ‘jot and tittle’ of which has either been 
fulfilled in the past or will be in the future. God leads, 
Satan follows. 

‘‘With the individual and public conscience so dead to 
the higher law, what will be the end of the world’s strug- 
gle? Progress is not an end in itself, when the end sought 
is not the richest and fullest life for all mankind in this life 
and the life to come. If the object of the gathering of so 
much money and power were love to God and love to man, 
and a looking for a recompense in the glories of the eter- 
nal life, then the dawn of the Millennium could be looked 
for. But love is not the predominant force or motive of 
the world to-day. Freedom and liberty are being super- 
ceded by oppression and slavery. The human heart must 
be emptied of its greed and selfishness in some other way 
than the preaching of the Gospel by man to man ; and the 
binding of Satan and the ushering in of the Millennium, — 
that time of peace and the brotherhood of man, — will come 
by a mightier combination of forces than has ever yet been 
known. 

“ ‘ Whoso hath this world’s goods and seeth his brother 
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from 
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?’^ 

“ But what is the love of God? 

“ ‘ Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid 
down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives 
for our brethren. ’t 


*i John 3: 17. 


ti John 3: 16. 


296 


HOMES FOR THE MASSES. 


God testifies to the world thus : — 

“ ‘ Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the 
bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to 
let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? 
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou 
bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? when thou 
seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that thou hide 
not thyself from thine own flesh 

“ The breaking of this higher law as is seen in this day 
testifies that we are not coming nearer to the days of the 
Millennium by righteousness, but that the world and the 
Church are coming to those days of desolation wrought by 
these very abominations! — greed and oppression — to which 
Christ referred, being repeated in history. 

“ In the midst of all this despising and breaking of the 
higher law — ‘ to love our neighbor as ourselves’ — it is of 
interest to know what position the Church holds in the 
conflict. The early Apostolic Church started out with 
this grand higher law standing prominently before all 
else. They had all things in common ; ‘ no man lacked 
anything.’ ‘ According to every man’s need,’ was the 
watchword. But this standard has not been upheld. 
There is not a doubt that the first law of the Apostolic 
Church will be the very law of mankind, of the Universal 
Church, in the days of the Millennium. 

“ Then where is the Church or body of men that can 
grasp these mighty problems.? Who can demolish the 
evils that exist and carry on a reformation until all wrongs 
are made right, ‘ when all men shall know the Lord ? ’ 
“When Miss Melrose, at one of our former meetings, 
said that there was no power on earth that could bring in 
the days when all men should know the Lord but the Per- 
sonal Presence and Reign of the Great King upon this 
earth, we all said that she was right in coming to thatcon- 

*Is. 58: 6-7, tMath. 24: 15. 


HOMES FOR THE MASSES. 


297 

elusion. All things go to prove that man is utterly 

UNABLE TO ACCOMPLISH SUCH A WORK FOR HIS FELLOWS 
AS TO GIVE EVERY MAN A HOME OF HIS OWN. Then We 
must come to the conclusion that the power that will bring 
about this happ}^ state of affairs must also be the Personal 
Reign of King Jesus. 

“Man must look away from man and look to Him as 
the only source, the only remedy, for every evil. 

“ Our brother asked what would be the state of the 
masses in the days of the Millennium. This is the mes- 
sage of the Great Land Owner that we can bring to him 
and to all others who are homeless. When that glad day 
dawns upon the earth the proclamation will go forth from 
Him : ‘ Thus saith the Lord, In that day. They shall sit 
every man under his own vine and his own fig-tree, and 
none shall make them afraid.’* Then will oppression 
cease, for in that day it will be the joy of the human heart 
to impart Salvation and supply every need of his fellow in 
such measure as he has himself.* 

“ ‘In that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, shall ye call 
every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig 
tree.’! 

“ Instead of the sign : ‘ No trespassing^ under penalty 
of the law^^ we shall hear the brotherly call : ‘ Come into 
my vineyard. Sit with me under my fig tree.’ All glory 
to the work of the Great King finished in that happy 
day.” 


*Micah 4: 4. 


tZech. 3: 10. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 

At the next meeting of the Watchers Samuel Barnes, 
the young minister, arose and said : 

“ As you are all aware, I have been studying for the 
ministry, with a view of going into a foreign mission field, 
but the tremendous importance of these chapters of the 
Church that have been in the past, and that we are now 
living in, which before I have not understood, along with 
some other reasons, have caused me to change my views. 
The other reasons why I have changed my mind are not 
known to any of you, but the circumstances have made a 
deep impression on me, and in as few words as possible I 
will give you my experience. 

“ As you know I belonged to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. My first charge was out in the country, where I 
and my wife were expected to give our whole time to the 
service of the Chfirch and live on $400 a year. 

“ The first year we were much encouraged in our spir- 
itual work in the Church, because we had quite a number 
of true conversions, and many whose love had grown cold 
were warmed up into new life. But to live on $400 a year 
we could not. Mrs. Barnes had $200 of her own, willed 
to her by an aunt; that she cheerfully gave up, so great 
was her love for the work. The taking of this money 
grieved me very much, but there was nothing else we 
could do. 

“We even gave $20 of this money to help pay the 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 


299 ' 

different amounts of the schemes of the Church that were 
settled upon us by the rules, which included collections 
for home and foreign missions, the infirm ministers’ and 
orphans’ fund, and the Presiding Elder’s salary. 

“ The second year we had hoped that in some way our 
salary would be raised at least $ioo, but it was not. 

“ At the beginning of the second year we determined 
to use the most rigid economy in everything, so that if 
possible we could get through the year without debt. 

“ At the close of the second year we had paid off all de- 
mands against us to all the schemes of the churqh, except- 
ing the last quarter of the presiding elder’s salary. This^ 
we could not raise, for we had exhausted every available 
resource. 

“ We knew the resources of every family in the church, 
and nearly every one had made a real sacrifice to help us 
thus far along. As for ourselves, our clothes were worn 
so bare that we were not fit to be seen in public. 

“ Now came the question. What were we to do? 

“ Well we knew that if we did not pay all the demands- 
of the church we would never get a better appointment. 
After a week’s deep thought Mrs. Barnes proposed that 
we should live on two meals a day, and put the money 
away — the price of the third meal — to pay this fourth and 
last payment of the elder’s salary. 

“ This fasting lasted several weeks before we had suffi- 
cient to pay the amount. I gathered some apples, at times,, 
that grew by the roadside over half a mile from our home. 

“Then I used to steal away several times a week and 
gather nuts, which proved good food to hungry people. 
Gladly I would have done writing or any kind of work that 
would have helped us out, but there was no chance for 
such work in that section. 

“ Several times I found Mrs. Barnes in tears, which al- 
most broke my heart, to think that this was all the home 


'300 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 


comforts that I could bring to her after marriage. We had 
pictured to ourselves at least the necessaries of life, but 
alas ! we came short of even that. 

“ When at last the amount was raised, I sent it on to the 
elder, but was too proud to say how I had raised it. Of 
course the elder did not know how it was raised, but he 
did know that we had only $400 to live on, against his 

$3^500- 

“ I wrote to the bishop and elder telling them whatever 

came I would not remain in C another year, saying 

that I would not ask Mrs. Barnes to suffer privation such 
as we had suffered any longer. I also said in my letter to^ 
the bishop that no doubt he was a busy man and had no 
time to make a comparison between his $5,000 a year and 
mine of $400, but that I had made a test of how little we 
could live on, and found that we could not do with what 
was given us, and that we would not try it again another 
year. 

“ The decided stand I had taken caused them to give me 

a new station in the city of N , with a salary of $600 

and a small parsonage. 

“We determined to work hard and do all we could to 
win souls by giving words of sympathy and help at all 
times. 

“ I was pressed to take ten days’ vacation when the sum- 
mer came, and I went to the seashore, intending to stay 
that length of time. I had only been there two days when 
something said to me very plainly, ‘ Go home to your 
charge.’ The call was so plain that I gave heed to it. 

“ I had just entered the parsonage when an old man rung 
the bell and asked me if I would preach a funeral sermon. 

“ He said, ‘My only daughter is dead, and there is no 
other minister in the city on week days.’ 

“ Of course I readily consented. 

“At the funeral service were a number of Jews. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 3OF 

Twelve of their number, after listening to my sermon, said 
that they believed that Christ was the Messiah. 

“ In ten days I had preached six funeral sermons to ad- 
herents of different denominations, had the joy of seeing a 
sick and dying mother brought to Jesus along with her 
two daughters and a son, helped a sick widow who had 
four small children, besides doing several other good works 
for the Master. Once I was enabled to save two families 
from shame and deep sorrow. 

“ In all this I rejoiced exceedingly, yet I thought, ‘There 
is so much to do for the Master and for suffering humani- 
ty, why am I left almost alone in the work?’ 

“At the end of the ten days, which I had proposed to 
take for my vacation, I knew why I had been called to 
come back — the Lord had need of me. 

“ Then I commenced to teach some things that the ‘ Ho- 
ly Spirit had brought to my remembrance,’ concerning the 
end of this, the Gospel Age and our Coming King. I was 
soon told by the heads of the Church that I was not to 
preach anything that the leaders had not set down as the 
doctrines of the Church. I tried to show them the state 
of the Church and the world as compared with prophecy. 
‘ So you would instruct your teachers, would you,’ was the 
answer I received.* 

“All these things opened my eyes more and more to 
the true state of the Church as foretold in Scripture. I 
finished the year in my new charge, and then, not wishing 
to be part of a machine, with body, soul and spirit under 
control of men, I left the Church and the men that would 
shut up the study of the Scriptures from me and from ev- 
eryone else as the Roman Catholic Church did in the Dark 
Ages. 

“ I have told the Lord : ‘ Thou alone art worthy, O 

•The leading facts in this narrative are absolutely true, and occurred in the 
state of New Jersey. 


302 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 


Lord to be my teacher, and I am in Thy Hand for 
Thy pleasure. Do Thou instruct me in the way that 
Thou wouldst have me to go ; and as I go in that way give 
me the words of wisdom that Thou hast promised to give 
to those who search the Scriptures, and who would teach 
that which Thou hast taught them.’* 

“ The great truths as seen by us I believe have been 
shown to us by the Holy Spirit. They have so impressed 
themselves upon my very soul that I think the teaching of 
them which leads up to the coming of the Great King and 
His Kingdom, is by far the most important work that 
should engage the efforts of every earnest Christian of this 
day. The very thought of having something to do in 
making preparations to welcome the Coming Bridegroom, 
is. a new joy to me. The thought has been such a source 
of joy to me of late, that I wonder at the coldness of my 
former love. 

“■ I have a hope (born of Heaven;, I think), that this my 
life will emerge into the Heavenly life even on this earth, 
when Christ comes to restore all things. To think of all 
men being good, to think of every man having a home of 
his own, and that wars shall cease to the ends of the 
•earth, and the thought of me seeing- it all makes me feel 
like shouting ‘ Alleluia ! Salvation and glory and honor 
and power unto the Lord our King and our God.’ 

“ From this time forth I shall teach these things in 
ChrisHan lands to those who have already given up their 
lives to Christ. Ai.ways having in view that a full 

KNOWLEDGE OF ‘ ALL THESE THINGS ’ IS AN ABSOLUTE NE- 
CESSITY BEFORE ANY CHRISTIAN CAN OBEY INTELLI- 
GENTLY Christ’s often repeated command to ‘ watch ’ 
FOR His coming.” 

“ ‘ I hope,’ said Mr. Randell, ‘ that our brother will fol- 
low in the line of the teaching of the Spirit to proclaim to 


*Luke 2i: 15. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 


303 


the burdened ones of earth of the coming King and King- 
dom. Such a call cannot go unheeded by him or any of 
us, as watchmen, without danger to ourselves. Faithful- 
ness to teach what we have been taught alone can insure 
to us the winning of our own crown. 

“ When Mr. Barnes was telling us of the many calls to 
preach funeral sermons from those outside of the church, 
I believe there was a message given to me for him and all 
of us. If the individual has lived and died in a careless 
state as to another life beyond this, and that state has been 
brought about for the most part by conformity to the ways 
of the world by the leaders of the church, then Christ says 
to all of us : ‘ Let the dead bury their dead ; but go thou 
and preach the kingdom of God.”* 

“ This work that you have told us of should be done 
and will be done by some one else ; but for you there is a 
much more important work to do, and a rich blessing 
is promised to all faithful and wise servants in Mat- 
thew 24 : 46.” 

May Melrose at this point said : 

“ No one but myself can know how deeply I am inter- 
ested in these discussions. From the time of my conver- 
sion I have been very deeply interested in foreign mis- 
sions. All the sacrifices I could make to help convert the 
heathen world did .not seem to satisfy me. My heart 
has been overburdened and perplexed with the little 
progress that has been made of late years in reclaiming 
the world from sin unto the way of Salvation. 

“ I now see that the Gospel was to be preached to all 
nations, to gather in those whom the Lord wants as wit- 
nesses from every clime and people, for the time when 
Christ will come back to earth again. Those saved ones 
He will bring with Him as witnesses of the triuiTiph of 
His Gospel over men’s hearts and lives when He comes 


*Luke 9: 60. 


3^4 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 


again. They will form the great body of earth dwellers 
during the thousand years of the Millennium. 

“ ‘ And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophe- 
sied of these, saying. Behold the Lord cometh with ten 
thousand of His Saints.’* “ ‘ And the Lord my God shall 
come, and all the saints with thee.’f ‘ When Christ who 
is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
Him in Glory. 

“ I am so glad that I did what I could to gather in those 
witnesses. 

“ By the Word of God I can see plainly that His com- 
ing again to restore all things is the greatest chapter in 
His great plan of the Ages. I cannot find words to ex- 
press the joy with which my whole life is filled because of 
the hope that I may live to see His coming, and be with 
Him afterwards, and see victory, victory, to His cause on 
earth ! 

“ Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown, which the 
Lord, the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and 
not to me only, but ‘ unto all them also who love His ap- 
pearing. ’§ 

“ The indifference to His coming as is shown by so 
many good men and women, and to the Scriptures that 
teach of His coming, is a marvel to me. It almost seems 
as if they would not love His appearing, should He come 
while they are living. 

“When I think of what is said — ‘That the love of 
many shall grow cold ’ — my soul sickens at the thought : 
‘ What if some of my friends that I have had such sweet 
fellowship with for so many years should be of that num- 
ber.?’ 

“ It can be said that the whole Christian Church is en- 
gaged in gathering in the witnesses needed for His com- 
ing. God has called them for this purpose, and they will 

*Jude i: 14. tZech, 14: 5. tCol, 3: 4. §2 Tim. 4: 8. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 


305 

most surely accomplish it. This being the case, when we 
see so very few people interested in Christ’s coming, so 
few that seek to know of the truths that teach of ‘ His 
Glorious Appearing,’ then I think that when the Spirit of 
the Lord speaks to any one of us, as He has done so 
plainly now, He is calling upon us to gain all the knowl- 
edge we can out of His Word and then teach these truths 
as the first object of our Christian lives, as our brother, 
Mr. Barnes, has just decided to do. 

“ I will also enter upon it at once with all the energy 
of my nature, and esteem myself as one of the favored 
ones in being taught of the Spirit; I will esteem it the 
greatest privilege of my life to teach to others these 
truths. 

“ I shall seek to get the love of those whom I come in 
contact with to grow warmer instead of colder, for their 
sorrow will be greater than those who never knew Salva- 
tion, as we read in Hebrews 10: 26-27.” 

A proposition was then brought forward bv Mr. Ran- 
dell, to start an organization to be known as Zion’s 
Watchers, with a constitution and by-laws, — in something 
more than mere name. 

So it was unanimously agreed that the time had arrived 
when more and better work could be done in teaching the 
truths of the coming of the Bridegroom, if societies of 
some kind were organized. While all agreed that there 
were already too many societies established, yet it was 
clear that no lasting results could be obtained unless an 
organization of some form was established. 

“It is very plain,” said May Melrose, “that the 
Church as a whole repudiates the doctrine of the second 
coming of Christ. When we meet with our fellow mem- 
bers in our churches with this ever-present joy in our 
souls, and have to keep quiet on this subject, which is the 
burning thought of our lives, I feel that the Spirit of God 


21 


3 o6 watchmen on z ion’s towers. 

is speaking very plainly to every one of us through Paul 
to the Corinthians : ‘ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same 
thing, and that there be no divisions among you ; but that 
ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in 
the same judgment;’* also ‘that ye stand fast in one 
spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the 
Gospel. ’t 

“We have faith in His coming again, which we believe 
is by far the most important part of all the precious truths 
taught in His Word. Then most surely we should try to 
teach it to others. How can we do so unless we are 
known by a name, and as having a purpose in view?” 

“ I have felt a great joy at our meetings,” said Verna, 
“ because here we have fellowship of the spirit. We that 
come here are ‘ likeminded, having the same love, being 
of one accord, of one mind,’j as the Scripture directs that 
we should be. 

“ ‘ Not forsaking the assembling ourselves together, so 
much the more so as we see the day approaching. ’§ We 
have much reason to give praise and thanks to God for 
teaching us of the ‘all things’ which will come to pass 
just previous to His coming, or we would not know, or 
‘ see the day approaching.’ There is also another deep 
meaning to me in the words ‘ assembling yourselves to- 
gether.’ My late experience in the Church has almost 
driven me away from it, and the question asked by Paul 
comes very often into my mind : ^ What communion hath 
light with darkness? ’ll I do not say that we have light 
and others darkness, but this light that is a lamp to our 
feet, and a light to our path, is a rock of offence to others. 

“ In that sad picture that Paul gives us of the Perilous 
Times of the latter days, he commands : ‘ From such turn 
away.’ While I do not think the time has arrived when 

*i Cor. i: lo. tPhil. i: 27. tPhil. 2; 2. §Heb. 10: 25. II2 Cor. 6: 14. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 


307 


we should obey that command, yet when iniquity shall 
come into the Church ‘ like a flood,’* as prophesied, I 
think that we shall be compelled to turn away from our 
former associates. 

“ Blessed indeed would our state be if we should be 
driven out for righteousness, so we read : ‘ Blessed are ye 
when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate 
you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast 
out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Re- 
joice ye in that day, and leap for joy : for, behold your re- 
ward is great in Heaven : for in like manner did your 
fathers unto the prophets. ’t 

“ ‘ He that hath this hope within him, purifieth himself, 
even as He is pure.’ Will it not be that hope that will 
cause the wise virgins to have more wisdom than their 
comrades, when they shall have their lamps filled with oil, 
ijohile the others have empty ones? 

“ There will be but two classes in that day. One class 
will be watching for His coming, the other will reject the 
doctrine, scoffing at the others, saying: ‘Where is the 
promise of His coming.^’ for since the fathers fell asleep, 
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the 
creation.’ Do we not read, ‘^Ye shall be hated of all men 
for my name’s sake.’ What subject was Christ talking 
Rbout when He said this. ^ His coming again. Then He 
was giving a message to the ones that would be ready and 
watching, having oil in their lamps at the time of His 
coming. 

“•All these truths make me feel that we are called of 
God to have a simple organization, to assemble ourselves 
together, where we shall have a fellowship one with an- 
other respecting this blessed hope. Then we should have 
a place where those who would know of these truths may 
come and learn. 

*Isa. 59: 19. tLuke 6: 22-23. 


3o8 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 


“ We read,” continued Verna, “ that when Peter and 
John were let go by their enemies, ‘ they went to their 
own company.’* How sweet to them at this time was 
human sympathy and fellowship! What joy it was to 
them that they had kindred spirits to tell of ‘ all that the 
chief priests and elders had said to them I ’ The songs 
of praise they sang to God brought a rich outpouring of 
God’s Spirit. Why.^’ Because ‘they were of one heart 
and one soul,’ as all people that meet together to advance 
the interests of God’s Kingdom should be. 

“In many of our churches there are subjects brought 
forward on various occasions that are altogether foreign to 
the advancement of God’s Kingdom on earth, so that I often 
think of Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians : ‘ How is it 
then, brethren.^ when ye come together, every one of you 
hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a reve- 
lation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto 
edifying. ’I 

No people ever had such a momentous event to pre- 
pare for as we have, whether it is for ourselves or others. 
This being the case, then no people in all the world should 
meet together in such complete harmony as those who are 
seeking to obey His command, to watch for His coming, 
and also the hope of seeing Him as King upon earth. 

“ The harmony that has existed between us in the past 
in the study of these wondrous truths has been a great 
blessing to each of us, and it certainly is what is wanted 
to advance this work for the future.” 

In Verna’s words there was almost a pleading tone, 
from which all knew that what she said was from deep 
conviction. Within her own heart she scarcely knew 
why she so earnestly strove to have societies formed. If 
she could have expressed herself in words, and cared to do 
so, it would have been in this manner : 


*Acts 4: 23. 


1 1 Cor. 14: 26. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 309 

“ My earthly lot is full of troubles, deep yearningjs, that 
perhaps may never have fruition in this world.* But at 
these meetings there has been a deepening, a widening of 
my whole being, so that I have had a recompense, in part, 
even now ; for when my thoughts take flight to the fair 
Land of Promise, no language can describe the joys that 
I know will be given to me and others who have suffered 
in this life.” 

All these deeper emotions had been reached by tribu- 
lation. Verna had learned to know “that tribulation 
worketh patience ; and patience experience ; and experi- 
ence hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed ; because the 
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
Ghost, which is given unto us.”^ 

There was no uncertainty in tlie better life for her. She 
took firm hold of Christ’s promises when He said : 
“ Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled.” 
Her’s was not a hunger, but a deep yearning, and she 
believed that in the Better Land she would be filled ac- 
cording as she had suffered and longed in this life. 

“ Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh.” 

How she would make heaven richer with melodious 
laughter because of the many tears she had shed here. 

Her life was not the least embittered by her sad experi- 
ence, but instead it was daily reaching out to the life be- 
yond. The hopes of anticipated bliss in the “ Somewhere,” 
was making her life here a happier one, and so God in- 
tended it to be. No wonder her words created a deep im- 
pression. 

They had such an effect upon May Melrose, for she 
seemed inspired as she said : 

“ I believe that the Lord has said to me : ‘ Whom shall 
I send? ’ and I have answered : ‘ Here am I, Lord, send 


*Rom. 5: 3-5. 


310 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 


me.’ I also believe that he is calling every one present to- 
the same work, and is now waiting your answer.” 

Then with a face beaming with anticipated happiness,, 
she said : 

“ Shall we not all at this time raise our hands to heaven- 
and say, having this blessed work in view : ‘ Here am I, 

Lord, send me ? ’ ” 

Every hand went up and repeated the words. Then- 
Miss Melrose said : “ Our vows are now recorded in 

heaven. Let us join together in prayer.” 

Then while they all knelt, May prayed : “ Father, we 
have come to a solemn moment in our lives. Thou hast 
heard our vows; thou only canst make us faithful ; thou 
alone canst instruct us; and we ask thee for help and 
strength. Give us all things that we need, so that each of 
us may he found without guile or fault before the throne 
of God. Write each of our names down in thy book of 
the 144,000 who will be watching for thy coming. Grant 
that we shall be of that number that wilL never see death, 
but of those who will be changed in a moment ; in the 
‘twinkling of an eye,’ and so shall we praise thee for- 
ever. Amen.” 

A new joy could be seen in every face as May ceased 
praying, because of the call, the response, and vows, 'and 
the new hope kindled in every breast. 

Then May continued, saying : “ I do hope that each one 
of us will daily ask counsel of our Father, saying, ‘ What 
wilt thou have me to do and when the answer comes,, 
strive with all our might to obey His commands. 

“ I wish to say something more about the witnesses. I 
believe that many of them will be gathered home before 
Christ comes, and that every one of them shall appear in 
His likeness, and return to earth with Him again when he 
comes.* 


*Rev. 20: 4. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 


31 I 

“ The end of the Gospel age is what we understand as 
the harvest of the world. ‘ Gather the wheat into my 
barn, but bind the tares into bundles and burn them.’* 

We read of this time of harvest in the words of Jere- 
miah : 

“‘The Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he 
will plead with all flesh, — he will give them that are wick- 
ed to the sword. — and the slain of the Lord shall be at 
that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end 
of the earth. They shall not be lamented, neither gath- 
ered, nor buried, they shall be dung upon the ground.’! 

“ But the 144,000, who are of literal Israel, will remain 
upon the earth until He comes; a living witness to the 
world and the Church of His Glorious Appearing, testify- 
ing by precept and example that they know of a truth that 
‘ He will come and not tarry.’ The knowledge of that 
coming will work a wondrous change in their lives. For 
it is said ‘ that every man that hath this hope within him- 
self, purifieth himself, even as He is pure.’ 

“ ‘ The blessed hope’ has made a great change in my 
life’s work and happiness. The hope of being one of the 
144,000 has caused me to look into my life to see if there 
was anything there that was not right in the sight of the 
Lord, because I know that everyone of the 144,000 shall 
be ‘ found without blame or fault before the throne of 
God,’' and that they will have to stand before the Son of 
Man, and they could not stand before Him if they were 
not worthy. I 

“The hope of His coming, and the knowledge of all 
things that shall come to pass just previous to His com- 
ing, has caused me deep searching of heart, and I have 
diligently sought to eradicate everything from my thoughts, 
words and actions that were not in accord with His teach- 
ing. Christ since that time has been the tender shepherd 

tier. 25: 31-33 ; Rev. 6: 8, also 9: 18. JLuke 21: 36. 


*Math. 13: 24-30. 


312 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 


to soothe and comfort me, and I now have His peace giv- 
en to me which passeth all understanding. 

“ O, my dear comrades, let my experience be a warn- 
ing to all to search our hearts and see what our thoughts, 
words and actions are, as compared with the life of Christ, 
always keeping in mind that the Lord cannot use us while 
we continue in sin ; and never forget the proof of your ac- 
ceptance as one of that number, — that you must ‘ be pure 
even as He is pure.’ 

“Never take the advice of any man, even your pastor, 
when what you are doing causes the inward monitor to 
reproach you. Most people call the voice within us con- 
science, as the better part of ourselves speaking to us when 
we do wrong; but that voice is something very different, 
FOR IT IS THE VOICE OF GoD, dwelling within us and 
speaking to us, for so we read : ‘ Thine ears shall hear a 
voice behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, 
when ye turn (out of the narrow way) to the right hand 
or to the left hand.’* 

“ If we will give heed to this voice of our Lord with- 
in us we shall have His peace. He says : ‘ These things 
I have spoken to you, that ye might have peace in me.’f 
“ ‘ A new song I hope to sing, which none but the 
144,000 can learn. ’I ‘ O Death where is thy sting, O 
Grave, where is thy victory .^’§ 

“‘And he said. Write, Blessed are they which are 
called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”|l 

“ I have been talking to several here present,” said 
Verna, “ as to whom we should endeavor to influence to 
join this movement. Each has expressed himself in about 
the same words. We find that the business people are too 
busy; pleasure seekers will not listen ; the ones that are 
full of earthly learning are satisfied with what they have ; 
so that the only ones that we can interest are the ones who 

*Isa. 30: 21. tJohn 16: 33. +Rev. 14: r-3. §i Cor. 15: 55. HRev. 19: 7-9. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 


3^3 


are carrying some heavy burden every day of their lives. 
The individual burden may have been unrequited love in 
one; in another a short-time union of hearts, then the go- 
ing out of the lamp of life of one of the two, leaving the 
other desolate and alone. With many there is some bod- 
ily ailment that saps all happiness out of life. All those 
who have blasted hopes will listen attentively, while all 
may not respond. 

“ I have thought what a haven of rest such societies 
could be made for the troubled ones of earth, where each 
could give sympathy and a kind word of cheer that would 
lift up a depressed, saddened soul who otherwise might 
lose heart and suffer defeat. 

“ When the Great High Priest comes back to earth from 
behind the veil of Heaven’s Temple to proclaim to three 
worlds — Heaven, Earth and Hell, that the sacrifice of His 
life has been accepted of the Father, that the sins of the 
witnesses are forgiven ; then Christ’s mission as Great 
High Priest is ended. When He comes in the clouds of 
heaven it is with a new office. He will then be crowned 
King over this earth : ‘ KING OF KINGS AND LORD 
OF LORDS!”’* 

“‘The Marriage Supper of the Lamb ’f will be the 
Great Marriage Feast that the King will make for His 
Son, I who is to be crowned King of this earth. The in- 
vited guests that He will bring with Him will be the re- 
deemed of earth of all ages, the witnesses, the saints, the 
great multitude which no man can number. ”§ They 
which ‘ came (to heaven from earth) out of great tribula- 
tion and have washed their robes, and made them white 
in the blood of the Lamb.’H But the bride of Christ will 
be the watching ones, the wise virgins, those 'who shall 
not sleep, but shall be changed in a moment, in ‘ a 
twinkling of an eye.’ 

*Rev. ig: i6. tRev. ig: 7 -g. JMath. 22: 1-14. §Rev. 7: g. llRev. 7: 13-14. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’S TOWERS. 


3H 


“ These are the 144,000 who shall go to meet Him and 
His great company in the air as they come to earth. 

“ Now if the heavenly host have attained to that honor 
through tribulations, then the 144,000 shall also have 
honor through tribulations. Of this fact we may be sure 
by the words of Christ Himself. 

“ We read that at that very marriage feast which we are 
looking forward to, when those who were bidden to the 
marriage feast refused to come, although they had all 
there was of earth and the offer of heaven, yet they were 
satisfied with the earthly. 

“ He who was preparing the feast then sent out into the 
streets and lanes, to bring in ‘ the poor, and the maimed, 
and the halt, and the blind.’* 

“ These suffering people who are thus hastily gathered 
in are no other than the 144,000, and God has chosen them 
from the same low walks of life, and the same tribulations 
will overtake them as did the ones who were dressed in 
white robes. 

“ The saddened life, the burdened heart, those who 
have striven to reach the goal of earthly happiness only to 
find the door shut and barred, will nearly always accept 
an invitation to a happier state. 

“ They have not had the good things of this life, but 
because those who were first bidden have had these good 
things, they utterly refuse to accept His invitation. 

“ I am heartily in favor of societies being organized to 
gather these burdened ones into companies in every city 
where human sympathy and Divine Presence shall sur- 
round them.” 

A short preamble was adopted, stating the object of 
Zion’s Watchers. 

A constitution which embraced Associate and Full Mem- 
bership was written out and signed by all. 


*Math. 22: i-io; also Luke 14: 16-24. 


WATCHMEN ON ZION’s TOWERS. 


3‘5 


A watchword and a beautiful emblem were selected 
from several designs and ordered to be made, which was- 
afterwards worn by each of the members. 

It was decided to call each company Watch Tower No. 
I, 2, 3, etc., with twelve members in each Tower. 

Thus was Tower No. i ol Zion’s Watchers started by a 
few earnest Christian men and women, who loved His- 
cause more than they valued their lives. They had thus 
taken an active part in this work and left the result with 
God. 

The great desire of their souls was to get at least 144,000- 
to believe that they were of the Lost House of Israel, and 
therefore could attain to the honor of being of that num- 
ber, because no Gentiles will be sealed within the number 
of 144,000. And no one will be changed from the mor- 
tal to the immortal without having tasted of death, except 
those who are of literal Israel. 



BOOK IL 



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CHAPTER I. 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 

We give our readers hearty welcome to these pages after 
being separated from them for nearly five years. Five 
years of experience work many changes in the character 
of an individual/ many changes in the Church, in the na- 
tions and in the world. A cordial greeting is extended to 
the many new members of Zion’s Watchers who have en- 
rolled themselves as members of the one thousand and 
twenty Towers that have been organized in different parts 
of the English-speaking world. 

We offer praise to God with you for the many precious 
truths that the Holy Spirit has brought to your remem- 
brance, of “ all things that Christ told the world in the 
Word of God, while He was prophet of the world.” 
Knowledge is power, and we congratulate you on the 
knowledge you have gained and the use you have made of 
it. Well you have obeyed the command of our Master — 
“ Go and tell what great things the Lord hath done for 
thee.” 

We would press upon you and others the tremendous 
importance of being faithful in all things wherein you are 
called, even to the end. Then to you He has given a 
precious promise : “ To him that overcometh, to him will 
I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame 
and am set down with my father in His throne.”* 

This message is from your coming King, who has told 

•Rev. 3: 21. 


320 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 


you to watch for His coming. It is sent to you, the faith- 
ful ones, in these the closing years of the Gospel Age, just 
previous to His being crowned King of this earth. 

In this message He says, if you are faithful, and “ over- 
come even as He overcame,” then you shall be enthroned 
with Him. If it were impossible for you to overcome, He 
would not require it of you. 

Dear Watchers, can you picture to yourselves what it 
would be to be set down on a throne with Jesus as Lord 
of Lords, and King of Kings.?”* Once there you will 
always retain that glorious crown. “ These are they 
which follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth.”j' 

All this glory, all this joy, will be the reward of faith- 
fulness. 

“ Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to 
give every man according as his work shall be.”J 

The faithfulness of the first few Watchers in spreading 
these wondrous truths, and the same spirit of fidelity ex- 
ercised by those they had taught, had wrought many 
changes in the individual characters of the many who had 
joined this movement. Many of them before meeting the 
Watchers were in doubt as to the outcome of the conflict 
between right and wrong, but now all was plain to them. 
They could see far down the stream of time, when right 
would triumph over wrong, because God had shown them 
that, according to His plan, all these chapters that were 
coming were planned out long ages ago, and written in 
His Word, but not understood till now by them, and not 
yet understood by the Church or the world. 

The Spirit of God had brought to their remembrance 
the prophecy: “Every man that hath this hope in him, 
purifieth himself even as he is pure.” They each knew 
that this word of prophecy concerning the blessed hope 
had been fulfilled in a measure in each heart, and they re- 

tRev. 14: 4. 


*Rev, iq: 16 and 17: 14. 


$Rev.22; 12. 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 


321 


joiced accordingly, because they were nearer to God, and 
God was coming nearer to them. Strange as it may seem 
to the worldling and the half-hearted Christian, the greater 
the burden each was carrying, the closer he or she nestled 
to the side of the Saviour. 

Not one of all of Zion’s Watchers had so deep an ex- 
perience in this way as had Verna and Harvey. The 
burden of their earthly life had not been in any way light- 
ened, but the soothing influence of the sweeter fellowship 
with God the Father and Christ their Saviour, soon to be 
their 'Bridegroom, was a joy that was becoming more in- 
expressible each week that they lived. 

“ It seems to me,” said Verna, one day as she and Har- 
vey were speaking of how the work of the Watchers was 
progressing, ‘‘ that lam getting nearer to God every day. 
His very nearness to me is something that is too holy to 
tell to the world, or to any but you. I think that you 
alone can understand the sweet, sweet joy I have now with 
my heavenly King.” 

Unknown to herself she emphasized the word heavenly, 
but Harvey was quick to notice it — he who was still her 
earthly king — and it caused a thrill of pleasure to per- 
meate his whole being. He did not answer her ; he was 
too happy for the moment, and, besides, he did not wish 
to interrupt her. 

“ I have thought,” she continued, “ of the many thou- 
sands who have sung the song: ‘ There is nothing half so 
sweet in life, as Love’s young dream,’ and who felt what 
they sang. How very few sunbeams have gladdened 
their lives ! How few ripples of joyous laughter have 
danced among their life chords, compared with the floods 
of eflulgence that are ever around my pathway, and the 
great rolling waves of happiness that lift me to heaven 
itself! 

“ I have felt,” she .said, while her voice was tremulous 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 


'^3 2 

with emotion, “that the description we have in tiie Bible 
of the days when our King shall reign on earth, when 
Paradise shall be restored, and the heaven which we shall 
arrive at last at, would have been far more grand, and more 
resplendent, if the human mind could have been formed to 
understand a language that would give a better description 
of the better Land. 

“When I think of the words: ‘ Eye hath not seen,’ I 
see in my mind’s eye panoramas of grandeur, beauty, and 
an all-wise fitness to everything, that I am lost in rapture ; 
and then my ear catches the new strains ‘ of melodious 
sounds of full melody’ which ‘ear hath not heard,’ and 
which will fill the arches of heaven, and swell fuller, 
higher and grander as they roll from arch to dome, which 
of themselves send forth great clarion notes of sweetest 
music, from instruments that were made and tuned in 
heaven. 

“ Then when my eyes and my ears are chained and en- 
tranced, my very heart and soul reach out for fullness also. 
What can that be but living in those very rapturous sights 
and sounds; being part of them, able to take part in the 
mighty song of praise of those who have lived on earth? 

“ I cannot find utterance for it all. even to you ; but this 
I know, that we shall rise from one glory to another glory 
on, on through the eternities. When I think of the time 
when we shall be changed from the mortal to the immor- 
tal, and what it means to us and others, when ‘ God shall 
wipe all tears from our eyes ; ’ for there shall be no more 
sorrow nor weeping nor heartaches, for the former things. 
— this barren life — will then have passed away. Then at 
these times I feel as if my heart would burst its bonds and 
go to those regions of the blessed. 

“ But if I had the power to go, and had to go alone, 
and leave others here in pain and sorrow, then I would 
have pain and sorrow even in Heaven.” 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 


323 


When Verna ceased speaking and realized the pointed 
words she had used, and the earnestness with which she 
had expressed them, then the sweet blush of other days 
suffused her face. 

As Harvey looked into that face he could see that it was 
growing more inexpressibly sweet as the soul within it 
was developing through its communion with Heaven. 
Then he said : 

“ I have had very cheering thoughts of heaven, but they 
have come far short of the heights you have reached. But 
the rapturous pictures you have portrayed before my mind 
have lifted me much higher than I have ever been before. 
I have had so much to do with the ills of this life myself, 
and the wrongs of others, that my feelings are largely 
with the work of helping the faithful ones who will live 
through the perilous times. 

“ Such a clear understanding of God’s plans of the past, 
present and future has been given to me, that I have little 
time to reach out further than that which lies immediately 
before. 

“ If I can with God’s help give such knowledge of the 
earthly joy that will come to the overcomers who survive 
the judgments of the Lord, I shall have great joy. My 
mind dwells on the time of great tribulation that His 
loved ones will have to pass through, yet so little in com- 
paiison with what the earth-dwellers will have to go 
through, when ‘all tribes of the earth shall mourn be- 
cause of Him,’ that I have longed to give all as clear a 
description of the joys that await them if they will continue 
faithful till the end. 

“ I have tried to see what ‘eye hath not seen,’ of the 
coming of our King in the clouds of heaven,* who will 
travel in the greatness of His strength and who is ‘ glori- 
ous in His apparel, ’t and of the Mighty Host that comes 

tis. 63: I. 


*Math. 24: 30; Rev. i: 7. 


324 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 


with Him and who will fill heaven and earth with glory 
as they come from the former to the latter. 

“ In fancy I have listened to that song of triumph and 
joy of the 144.000 that ‘ ear hath not heard,’ the song that 
no others but the 144,000 can learn, as they soar heaven- 
ward from this earth, that will then be reeking with the 
slain, while not an hair of their heads (the 144,000) has 
perished.* That song of triumph which they will sing is 
‘ Victory over death. Victory over the grave, Victory over 
sin, and joy evermore.’ Their shout of victory I can 
catch in part as they rise higher and higher: ‘ O Death, 
where is thy sting.^ O Grave, where is thy victory.^’ 

“Crowned with Him and sitting on the throne with 
Him, and the state of the earth under His reign of justice, 
mercy, truth and love, is something far above what ‘ the 
heart of man can conceive’ having known the terrible 
wrongs of the past that have ground humanity to the very 
dust. 

“ Before we met,” continued Harvey, “ our lives were 
like untilled ground, or like the branch that has borne but 
little fruit : ‘ He purgeth it that it may bring forth more 
fruit.’t 

“ What joy we have had as Christ has opened these 
wondrous truths to us concerning His coming, and how 
much still greater joy we have had telling to others what 
had been shown to us ! ” 

“ Yes,” said Verna; “ God has used me to convert 
precious souls to the Kingdom, and I have found as much 
pleasure in imparting this new joy to perplexed, troubled 
souls, as ever I had in seeing sinners come to Christ 
through my efforts. That alone has sustained me through 
these years.” 

“ I have learned to measure up my future happiness by 
what I have been able to glean from my fondest dreams in 

tJohn 15; 2. 


'*Luke 21: 18. 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 


325 

this life,” said Harvey. The looking forward from time 
to time in this life to meeting those nearest and dearest to 
my heart, the kind of welcome I shall receive when we 
do meet, have helped me in the life that I live here, which 
I try to make a type of my heavenly life. My happiness 
here depends largely on the warm clasp of the hand, the 
kindly greeting, and the tone of voice in which it is given ; 
for the expression of the eye, the trust or distrust I read in 
it, all mean happiness or misery to me at the time.” 

As Harvey said this Verna reached out her hand to him. 
He grasped it warmly, first with one hand and then with 
the other, holding it in a warm embrace between both, as 
he continued speaking. 

“ Then I look far into the futui'e and think what com- 
pleteness of all hoped for joy would be to us, instead of all 
this defectiveness. 

Sometimes I feel as if my whole soul would rise up 
against it in rebellion were it not for the words of Christ 
speaking direct to us now, at the beginning of the peril- 
ous times. 

“ ‘ Behold I come quickly : hold fast that which thou 
hast, that no man take thy crown,’* also ‘ As many as I 
love I rebuke and chasten.’! faith in Him makes me 

fully believe that without this chastening sent upon us we 
could not win that glorious crown. 

“ I know that this chastening, this cross, is sent to us in 
love, so that He can give us the greater reward, the greater 
happiness in His own way and time.” 

“ I am glad that you are exercising patience,” said 
Verna. “ Let me bring to you the words of the Apostle 
James, and you will see that as yet we are far from per- 
fect. ‘My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into 
divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your 
faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect 


*Rev. 3: II. 


tRev. 3: 19. 


326 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN. 


work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting noth- 
ing ! 

As Verna said this she gently withdrew her hand from 
Harvey’s embrace. Then she said : 

“ Our Saviour has left us a precious promise, if we will 
but take Him as our example of patience and faithfulness : 
‘ Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will 
also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall 
come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the 
earth.’ ”t 

To Harvey, Verna was almost perfect in her knowledge 
of Scripture, and also the way in which she fitted in the 
comforting words of truth into the experience of their 
lives. The deeper his distress the more comforting her 
words and actions. As he bade her goodby, he said : 

“ Verna, once more you have lifted me out of deep wa- 
ters by your kind w^ords and kinder actions. The trust 
you repose in me is the guiding star of my troubled life. 
May God reward you for it all. At present I cannot ; but 
I think you have a measure of reward in the pleasure you 
must know you bring to me.” 

“ Why, Harvey, what other way could I act towards 
you.^ I am but acting a natural part. Everything I do is 
but the prompting of my heart. I despise affectation. I 
would consider it wrong to keep back that which would 
comfort and strengthen another who has been assigned by 
the Commander-in-Chief a place of great danger in a 
watchtower, where there was constant vigilance needed, 
or he would be overcome by the enemy.” 

Happy was Verna as they parted, because she had done 
what she could to make Harvey happier ; and she was sat- 
isfied that it was right to have done so. 

Harvey could not have asked anything more from Verna 
than that little act of placing her hand within his. It 


•James i; 2-4. 


tRev. 3: 10. 


GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN 


327 


meant a chapter ‘that might have been’ in their lives; 
and then the messages she brought to him out of the Book 
of Truth was another reminder to patiently wait God’s 
time, looking into the future for a greater recompense, ac- 
cording as he stood firm against every foe in the Watch 
Tower in which he had been stationed. 



CHAPTER II. 


THE JEWS GATHER IN PALESTINE. 

A STIRRING APPEAL. 

There is one feature in the organization of Zion’s 
Watchers that the reader has not been made acquainted 
with. 

About two years after it was started it was proposed to 
gather as many Watch Towers together as possible once 
a year in each city or section, and always at the same 
place. 

This gathering was called the “ Outlook Feast.” 

A whole day was given to this service. The first part 
of the day was taken up in hearing reports of members as 
to the progress of the Order, and- of the fulfillment of 
prophecy. 

The joyous, happy expression on many of the faces that 
were gathered there was a rich reward to the promoters of 
this Order, for this their faithfulness. 

The last part of the day was taken up with social inter- 
course and in the partaking of a light repast in commem- 
oration of the Great Marriage Supper that will take place 
at Jerusalem when the Bridegroom comes. 

At the gathering in the Autumn of 1906, great interest 
was manifested by everyone present. The twelve mem- 
bers who had started the order years before, and who con- 
stituted Tower No. i, were all present and cordial greet- 
ings were exchanged between them. 


A STIRRING APPEAL. 


329 


The success of their efforts was represented in this large 
gathering. 

How well God had taught them of the ‘ falling away ’ 
in the Church was manifest to all from the various reports 
that were given in. 

The years from 1900 to the present year (1906) had 
been so many dark chapters in the history of the Church, 
and it would be well if they could be forever blotted out 
of its records. 

It was shown that by far the greater number of minis- 
ters preached sermons written and published by certain 
men for them, and sold by yearly subscription. These 
sermons they reproduced as their own. 

As one said at this meeting, with tears in his eyes : 
^‘This book,” holding a Bible in his hands, '■‘and the 
preaching of the Gospel therefrom, has become a thing of 
the past.” 

Sunday School lessons for a long time have been ground 
out for money by man power, few ever studying the Bible 
for themselves. The annual sermon on Temperance 
preached at the earnest appeal of the W. C. T. U. had 
been given up. Rum, with alT its degenerating effects, 
ruled in the cities. 

Since this sad state of matters commenced ten years 
ago, many good ministers and people had gone to their 
reward. Many of the same class are still living, but are 
sadly perplexed as to what this state of matters means, and 
of the outcome of it all. 

For years Harvey had had a great longing to go to Pal- 
estine, more especially since the home gathering of the 
Jews had commenced. 

He and some others had visited’ England and Scotland 
for the purpose of starting the Watchers’ movement in 
those places. Success had attended their efforts, and as 
soon as it was established on a firm basis he had made a 


330 THE JEWS GATHER IN JERUSALEM. 

hurried trip to Jerusalem and the surrounding villages and 
country. 

This annual meeting had been postponed for a month, 
awaiting his return in order to hear his report. 

He had gone there to get a glimpse of what was being 
accomplished by the ingathering of the Jews from all 
over the world. He described in glowing terms the 
prosperity of that land of ancient story, that was now 
“ being brought back from the sword.”* 

“ The twelve hundred and sixty years that the Holy City 
was to be trodden under foot had come to an end,” he 
said, “Jerusalem is being builded again. There is no 
mistaking the people who are building its houses, its stores 
and paving its streets. Long centuries ago it was prophe- 
sied that “ The show of the countenance doth witness 
against them.”f Neither have the beards of the men been 
marred. t But their countenances have assumed a look of 
expectancy since their return to the land of their fathers, 
very different from the downcast, troubled looks that they 
and their fathers had worn in the land of the Gentiles, 
where they had been scattered for twenty centuries. 

Not only is Jerusalem being builded, but Gaza and 
Jappa by the sea. Bethlehem and man}^ more of the old 
towns and villages near Jerusalem are also being rebuilt, 
with many public buildings therein. Everywhere life and 
great activity are to be seen. Standing on the heights 
outside Jerusalem and looking out over the valley of 
Jehoshaphat, in the autumn, a busy scene lies before the 
eye. Grapes, olives and other fruits are growing along 
the slopes, and in the valley are seen barley and wheat 
fields ripening to the harvest. 

A striking contrast is this present scene to the barren, 
desolate appearance the whole land has presented ever 
since the time when the Lord said of this land : “ I will 


*Ezek. 38: 8. 


tisa. 3: 9. 


+Lev. 19: 27. 


A STIRRING APPEAL. 


33 f 

also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”* 
By His command the land became a desolation. By 
His command it has been made to blossom and rejoice as 
now seen. “ Be glad, then, ye children of Zion, and re- 
joice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the 
former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down 
for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the 
first month. ”t Also “ Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, my 
cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad ; and 
the Lord shall yet comfort Zion. And shall yet choose 
Jerusalem.”! “ And shall gather together the dispersed 
of Judah from the four corners of the earth. ”§ 

“Modern improvements are fast coming into use,” con- 
tinued Harvey. “ The cry ; ‘All aboard for Jerusalem, 
and the next station is Jappa,” strikes on the ear as 
strange words in the land of Bible story, which we always 
thought would retain the same quaint, old manners and 
customs that have become almost sacred to us. 

“ I wish,” said Harvey, “ that I could impress upon 
you God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises to His peo- 
ple after so many centuries, and the steadfast^ utidying 
belief of these feople that the God of Abraham would 
not lie. 

“ How faithfully the fathers must have taught the chil- 
dren all through the generations from Abraham down to 
this day of the coming of their Great King ! 

“ The expectation of seeing the coming Messiah so long 
'foretold is now the star of hope that is bringing this peo- 
ple from all lands where they have been ‘ put to shame.’ |[ 
“ These people are nearly all orthodox Jews ; not hav- 
ing embraced the Gospel, their views of a coming King' 
are of a more worldly character than ours. But such 
earthly glories as in fancy they see in store for them in the 
near future are an inspiration to any one who sees and 

*Isa. 5: 6, tJoel 2: 23. tZech. i: 17. §Isa. 11: 12. ilZeph. 3: 19. 


332 


THE JEWS GATHER IN JERUSALEM. 


hears them. The gathering of these people from all cor- 
ners of the earth is but just begun. There are at this date 
(1906) about 1,000,000 of them, who have returned to 
the land of their fathers, but in the near future there will 
be so many more that ‘ place shall not be found for 
them.’* 

“ When Moses prayed : ‘ Hear, Lord, the voice of 
Judah and bring him unto his people, ’f he saw in vision 
the dark future of trouble that lay in the pathway of 
Judah, or he could not have asked for that blessing. 

“ So now at last -his prayer is being answered. Judah 
is being brought back to his people, and his own land. 
Long centuries they have waited and watched for a way to 
be opened. They still have the undying hope of seeing 
their promised King. This, with the glories of the ex- 
pected earthly kingdom, has been a secret fountain of life 
to the fathers who have handed it down to the children, 
generation after generation, from the time of Abraham. 
This blessed hope — our hope — is that which is even now 
impelling them back to the Promised Land. 

“A momentous question should come to each of us at 
this time,” continued Harvey, as hisvoicevard manner as- 
sumed a very serious tone : “ Wherein is our hope that we 
shall ‘see the King in His beauty when He comes? 
Wherein is our hope that we shall be of that number of 
wise ones who will be ready and obtain admittance into 
‘ the marriage feast, before the door is shut?’§ 

“We are of the twelve tribes of Israel, and therefore 
-eligible to the seal that is placed upon the brows of the 
144,000. 

“ Shall we be living at the day of His coming? Shall 
we enter then through the open door to the great feast, or 
shall we come to that door to find it shut and barred ?11 

Every one of Zion’s Watchers here is making up his 


*Zech. 10: lo. tDeut. 33: 7. tisa. 33: 17. §Math. 25: 10. lIMath. 25: 1-13. 


A STIRRING APPEAL. 


333 


or her work of life or death, and the recording angel is 
writing down every detail, every thought, word and 
action. 

, Immediately before the placing of the seals, these books 
will be opened, and your present life will be brought be- 
fore the court of heaven, and the seal of the 144,000 or- 
dered by the Great Judge to be placed upon your brow, 
or upon that of some one else who has taken your crown, 
by being found more worthy than you. 

“ The record of every one of the 144.000 will be : ‘In 
their mouth was found no guile, for they were found with- 
out blame before the throne of God,’* and the record 
■will be acted oi^t by you before the seal is placed. 
Once sealed, always sealed. 

“ We are told that ‘every man that hath this hope in 
him, purifieth himself even as He is pure.’ The impor- 
tant question to us is, What is it that giveth this hope to 
any man? 

“ There is but one answer to this question — a full 
knowledge and belief that Christ will come again in great 
glory. An understanding of the prophetic* events that 
will take place within the Church and the world just pre- 
vious to His coming, as taught in His Word by the Holy 
Spirit. This knowledge w.ill give us faith that He is 
coming, and coming in judgment. The Spirit’s teaching 
is that there will be 144,000 who shall escape this judg- 
ment, and in thus escaping will be elected and sealed to 
great honors and still greater happiness. 

“ Having this hope from knowledge, they still further 
know that if that hope is realized they will have to ‘ stand 
before the Son of Man.’j- That being the case, they know 
that only ‘ the pure in heart shall see God.’]; Therefore, 
this hope causeth them to ‘ purify themselves even as He 


*Rev. 14: 5. 


tLuke 21: 36. 


JMath. 5: 8. 


334 


THE JEWS GATHER IN JERUSALEM. 


is pure.’ Then how can we know if the work of purifi- 
cation is still going on in our hearts? 

“ What does the Scripture say the works of the flesh are 
before conversion ? 

“ We read : ‘ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, 
which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, las- 
civiousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emula- 
tions, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings and such like: of the which I tell 
you before, as I have also told you in time past that they 
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of 
. God.’* 

‘‘I have not thought that any of you would do these 
things, but are your lives filled with the works of the 
Spirit? 

“ We read in the next verse : ‘ But the fruit of the Spirit 
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance ; against such there is no law. 
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with 
the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us 
also walk in the Spirit. ’f 

“ Now when the books are opened and the records are 
made out, there will not be a setting of the evil works on 
one page and the works of the Spirit on another, and at 
the close of the account a balance struck. Zion’s Watch- 
ers must be found ‘WITHOUT BLAME’ when the 
books are opened. 

“ Do your consciences speak to you at this moment and 
tell you of some sin that you are still rolling as a sweet 
morsel under your tongue? Are you troubled over some- 
thing you have left undone? In either case it is sin, and 
you are found faulty before the throne. Throw off' that 
sin, otherwise you will not be sealed and will lose your 
crown. Place that sin and the pleasure you get from it 


*Gal. 5: 19-21. 


tGal. 5: 22-25. 


A STIRRING APPEAL. 


335 


and that glorious crown side by side. Weigh them in the 
balance and the length of time you will enjoy either; then 
say to yourself: ‘Which of the ‘Two Loves’ shall I 
choose? Which do I now love most?’ 

“You must not, cannot love both ; you must cleave to 
the one and leave the other. — ‘Two Loves’ — ‘And the 
books were opened.’ ” 

As Harvey finished speaking the silence was oppressive, 
because with every one there was deep searching of the 
heart. Every head was turned in a way that denoted 
complete abstraction of mind. All eyes were intently 
gazing, yet not seeing what they were looking at. 

Harvey watched the faces before him. He could see 
some of them at once assume a resolute look, others a 
look of distress, while some looked happy. 

Unconsciously Harvey had spoken of God’s standard of 
faithfulness and of man's duty to measure up to it as near 
as possible in the same way as he had listened to Vern« so 
often in the past. There was a time when he needed her 
faithful, true spirit to keep him in the path of duty. Full 
well he knew that she had done much to keep him faith- 
ful, and the lessons she had taught him had become a part 
of himself. 

He called for a few minutes of silent prayer from every 
soul according as the exigency of the case required, with 
each and all present, and then closed the meeting. 


CHAPTER III. 


PERPLEXITY. — HATED OF ALL MEN. 

Since Harvey’s return from Europe and Palestine, a 
new trouble had come to him. His life had been widened 
out since meeting Verna in his exercise of patience and 
other Christian graces. Yet the Disposer of every man’s 
life saw that there was sometliing more needed yet to 
make him perfect in patience^ perfect in love to God 
for the work assigned to him, “so likewise he that for- 
saketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.”* 

It was told Harvey that Verna was engaged to be mar- 
ried. When this information was given to Harvey, a pang 
of anguish shot through him, that up to the present he 
had never felt before, nor had he ever thought it possible 
that such a painful moment could come into his life. Al- 
though such agony swept over his soul when told of this, 
yet no outward sign of distress was to be seen by the one 
who told him. It was when he was alone that the awful 
chasm opened before him. 

In the years of his absence had she changed.^ ' Was her 
lonely life more than she could bear.-^ Had she forgotten 
With what agony those questions came to him, he alone 
knew. He said to himself : “ Verna is free, but I am still 
bound.” Had he sought a new object for his affections 
when this had come to him years before.^ He knew he 
had not. Before it came, had he not buried all his heart’s 
cravings and truthfully said: “ Thy will be done.^” Yes, 


*Luke 14; 33. 


PERPLEXITY. — HATED OF ALL MEN. 


337 


he had done all this, but he did not know what the depths 
of his soul were until he had met Verna. Now if she 
were going to another it were better that he had never been 
bo>rn. Far better death and total annihilation, than any 
such ending up of these dreams of an elysium, even if 
they were but dreams. 

Such were some of the thoughts that passed through 
Harvey’s mind as great drops stood out on his forehead. 
Days and nights he carried this new burden alone, until 
he was afraid he would go mad. 

He said to himself : “ I cannot bear this, it is too much 
for God to ask me to bear. It is too much, too much ; if 
I could sink into oblivion now and forever, surely it 
would be well.” He could not sleep, eat, or pray. 
Verna, in whom he had confided so much, had left him. 
God had hidden his face from him. He was alone in this 
hour of temptation.* He came to the time in his life that 
was most dangerous to him — as it is to any other mortal — 
he wanted to be alone. 

When men and women come to that state of mind, as 
they sometimes do, it is then that they are tempted by 
Satan to rush madly into the Great Unknown by their own 
act. They feel when in that state that they are forsaken 
by man and God. 

After one week of intense suffering something said to 
him: “ You have forgotten to pray.” And the tempter 
said to him : How can jyou pray.? What will you pray 
for.? If you made the attempt, what words could you 
frame that would suit your case.?” And in hideous 
mockerv he could hear a laughing “ Ha ! Ha ! Now use 
a prayer from the Bible. He ! he ! ” 

It was a terrible moment for him. Slowly he repeated 
the mocking words of the tempter. Then he asked 
himself : 

“ What words could I use. Is there a prayer in all 

r’3 


338 


PERPLEXITY.— HATED OP' ALL MEN. 


God's Word that would suit my case?” -Yes, there was 
one. But dare he use it? His Saviour had used it when 
hanging on the cross. Then he thought that if God had 
hidden His face so much as to cause that agonizing cry to 
be wrung from his own Son, then why not from him who 
was but a sinful man? 

For a minute he forgot himself, and his thoughts dwelt 
on his Saviour on the cross, dying in such agony, forsaken 
by man and God, but still surrounded by his enemies. 
And, as if in sympathy for the suffering One he could see 
in such agony, Harvey slowly repeated the words of 
Christ: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me ? ” 

Soon he came back to his own agony, and he thought : 
“ Why cannot I pray that prayer?” and he cried aloud: 
“ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” A 
still small voice whispered to him : “ I will never leave 
thee nor forsake thee.” “ When thy father and thy 
mother forsake thee, then the Lord will take thee up.” 

Then he said : “My Lord, lift me up, for I am in deep 
waters.” 

This prayer and its answer comforted him in part. 
Then he thought of Verna. How could he blame her? 
He had nothing to offer to her now or at any other time. 
Why should she wait? He had not a word of blame for 
that sweet spirit. If there was any blame to attach to any 
one, it was to himself. 

He was made to suffer for some reason, he knew not 
what. He had stood in his Watch Tower, he had for- 
saken all, even Veina, and followed after Jesus. But here 
was something more than a forsaking of all. Verna was 
going to give herself to another, and Harvey had been 
forsaken. Then the question came to him : “ Did not 
Christ forsake the joys of heaven for your eternal wel- 
fare? Did not Abraham dearly love his only son Isaac? 


PERPLEXITY. HATED OF ALL MEN. 


339 


Yet when God asked him to give him up had he not 
cheerfully obeyed.? Did not God love His only Son.? 
Did He not give him up out of His love for the world.? 

Harvey had to say yes to all these questions. Then 
would he not give up to another this great prize that for a 
time he had won.? 

Ah ! here were “ Two Loves ” indeed ! Which should 
he choose.? He had told Verna that he had made a 
choice ; could he go back on it all.? No, he would choose 
his Father and his Christ ; he would seek the Divine love 
Rnd let the other go. 

And the Great King would remember Harvey for com- 
ing to this decision. When he had gained the ascendancy 
over the tempter, he said to himself: “ I will go and tell 
Verna that I do not blame her. Yet I cannot say to her 
* You are free,’ for she was never bound.” 

He would wait until he had more resolution, and had 
become used to the situation ; then he would go and tell 
her ; so for several weeks he avoided a meeting with her. 

At last they met by chance, and Harvey was the first to 
speak. As he held out his hand to her, he said in a very 
cold way : “ Good evening, Miss Rodell.” 

Verna was quick to notice that he had not called her by 
her first name, and she also noticed that his face was hag- 
gard, and that his voice trembled. 

“ What is the matter .? ’' she asked. “Have you been 
sick, without letting me know.?” 

No, I cannot say that I have been sick,” he replied in 
a broken voice. 

“Then what is the trouble.?” she asked in a tone ot 
deep anxiety.' 

Harvey did not answer her, for the meeting was very 
unexpected to him, and he was so overcome that he had 
not a word to say to her, but turned away his eyes so that 
she could not see his face. He was afraid of himself, and 
he was sorry he had met her. 


340 


PERPLEXITY. HATED OF ALL MEN. 


Then she asked him : “ Why did you call me Miss Ro- 
dell, instead of Verna ? ” She waited for an answer while 
tears stood in her eyes. 

His answer came by asking a question : 

“ When are you going to be married, Miss Rodell ” he 
asked, without a thought of how abrupt it would be to 
Verna. 

‘‘ Married ! ” she repeated in astonishment. 

“Yes; I have been told repeatedly that you were en- 
gaged to be married.” 

“ Oh, then, that report has reached you also, has it.^ It 
is false ; I am not going to be married. Is that the stand- 
ard of your measure of me.? I think that it is I who have 
cause to be offended. It never occurred to me that you 
would give heed to any such report, even if you did 
hear it.” 

Verna said this in a very angry tone of voice — some- 
thing very unusual for her. She had prided herself upon 
her faithfulness to principles ancl convictions. Others- 
might falter and change, but she — never. Steadfastness 
was the leading feature in her nature. To be judged by 
any one, and especially Harvey, in such a way, was very 
trying to her. 

“ And you thought me faithless ! ” she continued, with 
a strong emphasis on the you. 

“ I could not blame you. if you did get married,” said 
Harvey. 

“ Yes you could, and you would blame me as long as 
you lived. If I had changed, would you not blame me.^ 
And if I had not changed and married, would not I be 
outraging every sacred instinct of my nature.? Would not 
I be trampling under foot the divine law of heaven ! 
“ Answer me, would you not blame me?” she demanded, 
with an impatient stamp of her foot. 

“ I suppose I would,” said Harvey, rather shame- 
facedly. 


PERPLEXITY. — HATED OF ALL MEN. 341 

“ Then, if I outraged the sacred laws of humanity and 
of heaven as well, and broke my vows to my God, would 
not I be shamefaced before you and others, and guilty be- 
fore heaven.^ What would I gain? An unhappy life. 
What have I had before this? Happiness in the knowl- 
edge that as far as I knew, I was doing right. If I should 
be married with all these facts before me, would I be led 
by the Spirit? ” 

Verna asked these questions and gave answers to some 
of them with such a righteous indignation in her voice 
and manner that Harvey was more perplexed than ever to 
know how to answer her. He had deeply wronged her 
in thus judging her, and how could he make restitution, 
and restore the old-time confidence and trust between 
them? 

At last he said to her: “You said something about 
breaking your vows to God. May I ask what vows you 
would break if you were to be married? ” 

“ That was something in my life that I did not wish to 
tell you ; but when you have judged me so faithless I will 
tell you. One day after you and I had talked over our 
sorrows I thought of Christ as the Great Burden-bearer, 
carrying the burden of my sins, and I knew I could not go 
into the presence ot my God with them unpardoned. In 
gratitude to Him I said : ‘ Lord thou hast said Bear ye 
one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.’* 
Then I asked : ‘ Who is carrying a burden that I can help 
to carry?’ I then thought of our confessions to each 
ether, which ought to be as sacred as vows. Although 
you had never asked me I then made a vow that I would 
never suffer the approaches of any man. I would remain 
single. I would help you to carry your burden, and not 
for one moment have I thought of casting my vows to one 
side, so you can see I am not free any more than you are,” 


*Gal. 6: 2. 


PERPLEXITY. — HATED OF ALL MEN. 


342 

As Verna said this, her face was lit up with an expres- 
sion of sweetest womanhood, and a soul purified by the 
vSpirit of God, such as Harvey never had seen before. 
Then he said : “ Do you remember what you said to me 
about two years ago, when you were telling me about the 
glories of heaven ; how that you would gladly leave this 
world of trouble, only that you would leave others here in 
sadness ? ” 

“ Yes, I remember.” 

“ Neither you nor any one else could understand the 
state I was in after this rumor came to me. It brought me 
a week of days and nights of inky blackness, almost des- 
pair. I prayed for death, and I am afraid I prayed for 
total annihilation also.” 

Interrupting him, she asked : “ Oh, Harvey, how could 
you do that ? ” 

“ Because the tempter came to me with all his power. 
When at last I prayed, God said to me : •• God so loved 
the world that He gave up his only begotten Son ’ to the 
death because of another love, and He requires you to give 
up this love that you are cherishing for the greater love ot 
H im who so loved you.” 

“ Anu did you do so ? ” 

“ As far as it was possible I did, and I said I would 
tell _y ou sometime ; but I found I could not trust myself to 
tell you for a time, not until I had schooled myself more.”’ 

“ In what, — forgetfulness of me.^” 

To this question Harvey could not give a direct answer,, 
but said : “ If it were possible for you to understand in 
any measure how I have suffered, you would then know 
the depth of my feelings toward you. Please take that as 
the motive for my unkind judgment of you ” 

I will,” she said. “ And since you have told me of it 
all I have been trying to put myself in your place, and^ 
Harvey, I do not blame you. I could not say what I 
would do, if I felt that I was deserted as you did ” 


PERPLEXITY. — HATED OF ALL MEN. 


343 


“And you really forgive me, and trust me as before?” 

“Yes, I will,” she answered, as she gave him her 
hand. Then she touched the Watcher’s emblem that he 
wore with the one that she had, and said : “ God helping 
me, I will watch and be faithful to the true instincts of my 
nature, both to God and man, until my Heavenly King 
comes to claim me” 

“ May God bless you, Verna, with His richest bless- 
ings. You truly are my good angel. You have lifted a 
heavy burden from me, and freed me.” 

“ 1 fully believe,” said Verna, “ that both you and 1, 
and all other Christians who seek to do the will of God, 
are placed in the Watch Tower where we can be of the 
most service to God’s cause, and for which service, how- 
ever hard, we shall receive the reward. 

“ God knows that other ties, other associations, will 
hamper us, and put fetters upon our best powers of war- 
fare against the kingdom of darkness.” 

“ In that darkness I felt that if I could only say, ‘ Mine, 
Mine,’ and in that way end all trouble, it would surely be 
better,” said Harvey. 

“God knows best,” said Verna, “and it is without 
doubt best that I am not yours. I am afraid that we should 
be satisfied with our happiness, and not even know that 
we had forgotten our divine love. 

“ We have been talking of our own trouble so long, let 
us bury it or any other matter of the same kind forever. 
I have something else I want to talk about. 

“ I suppose,” she continued, “that you did not know 
that I had ceased to be a member of a chuiTh.” 

“ No, I did not. You must have had some great trials 
before that came about. When did it happen, and how? ” 

“ You know that there is a new minister at what was 
my church, and you remember the trouble I had with Dr. 
Houston when Ethel Wood and Minnie Hall died.” 


344 


PERPLEXITY. HATED OF ALL MEN. 


“ Yes, I remember.” 

“ Well, when the new minister came, he asked Dr. 
Houston if there were any persons in the church that were 
in any way contentious, or that spoke their minds. He 
wanted to know if the officers were men and women that 
would do as they were told. ‘ For,’ he said, ‘ I will soon 
let them know that I am going to run the church.’ Dr. 
Houston told him that I had a way of speaking my mind 
pretty freely, and saying things very much to the point. 

“ ‘If she tries that with me,’ said he, ‘ I will soon make 
things so unpleasant for her that she will be glad to keep 
quiet, or leave.’ 

“ The very first action that was taken by him in the 
church was at a gathering of a few of the officials, and 
they together made a rule, that any person who did not 
pay for a whole pew could neither vote in any church mat- 
ter, nor hold office.* 

“ Now you know that I do all I can for several poor 
families who are sick and utterly unable to help them- 
selves, and when the officials raised the salary of the new 
minister to $2,000 my brother and I felt that we would 
rent only half a pew, and give the difierence to the poor, 
sick families that we have been helping. 

“ There were some more officials needed, and some 
men were to be brought forward and voted on that were 
good supporters of the church, but who knew not of Sal- 
vation themselves, and who were known to be utterly un- 
fit for such offices. 

“You may judge of our surprise when at the meeting 
called to elect these men, the minister gave out this rule 
to the members, just before the vote was taken. 

“ It was asked when such a rule was made. 

“‘At the last meeting of the official board of the 
church,’ was the answer. 


•This incident actually occurred in a church in the State of New Jersey. 


PERPLEXITY. — HATED OF ALL MEN. 


345 


“ William Spencer spoke his mind very freely. He 
said: ‘ The Church is digging a deep pit every day for 
itself, into wdiich some day it will fall, and from which it 
will be utterly unable to extricate itself. This setting 
aside of the poor by the church, not from any lack of spir- 
itual life, but because they are poorer than their neigh- 
bors ; and the condoning of the faults of the rich because 
of their riches, is fast deepening the pit. 

“‘What is the reason that I cannot vote?’ said he. 
Poverty? ’ ‘ There is no law of man or God that makes 

that a crime, or even a fault. The apostles were poor ; 
the martyrs who were the seed of the Church, were poor; 
and my blessed Master was so poor that He had not where 
to lay His head. 

“ ‘ He taught lowliness and humility, — an utter disre- 
gard for the things of this world. 

“ ‘ The most important work which Christ did while 
upon earth, besides giving His life as a sacrifice for sin- 
ners, was to preach the Gospel to the poor and needy. 
He associated with those that were homeless and in need 
of bread, who were sick and dying, wounded and neglect- 
ed, who were sad, weary, and broken-hearted ; He sought 
them out and administered to their wants, temporal and 
spiritual. His life was an absolute forgetfulness of self. 
If others were suffering, they must be relieved. He loved 
his neighbor to the giving up of all comforts, to the giv- 
ing up of life itself for the sake of others. 

“ ‘Christ’s life showed the mighty cross He had to carry ; 
His whole teaching, and that of His disciples, was that 
those who would wear the crown must jirst carry the 
cross ; that the weight of the cross would be according to 
the ability and strength of the soldier to bear through life, 
with a full recompense in the crown, for the burden of 
the cross. Christ showed to each soldier what was re- 
quired of him in the great conflict of life, holding Him- 
self as the Great Example. 


346 


PERPLEXITY. HATED OF AI.L MEN. 


“ ‘ For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he 
that serveth ? Is it not he that sitteth at meat? But I am 
among you as he that serveth.’* 

“ ‘ If then your Lord and Master have washed your 
feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I 
have given you an example that ye should do as I have 
done tu you.’! 

“ ‘ This setting the rich in the high places and driving 
out the poor, — for it is fast coming to that, — is as far from 
the example of the founder of the Church as it is possible 
to be.’ 

“ Several others made remarks of the same nature, and 
then the minister tried to shut off any further discussion. 

Even while I was standing ready to speak, he said : 

‘ We cannot have any more talk now.’ It was such an 
outrage on all that was Godlike, that I would not sit down 
until I had had my say ; for I felt that it was about my last 
chance in that church to make a protest. 

As near as I can remember, this is what I said : 

“ ‘ I do not wonder that there is a continual wailing and 
lamentation over the deca}- of membership and attendance 
within the churches, when money is made the standard. 

“ ‘ It is not possible to carry on the work of advancing 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when the right to worship is 
owned bv privileged pewholders. The object on which 
the individual and the Church places their affections 
makes them good or bad. If the object of the leaders of 
the Churches be self, then they become selfish, seeking 
honor and riches for themselves, and seeking it from 
the source that gives the quickest returns; as in this case, 
seeking to honor those who will give them a recompense 
again. 

'■ But if our love is centered on Jesus Christ and the 
work He has given us to do — winning souls from dark- 


*Luke 22: 27. 


tJohn 13: 14-15. 


PERPLEXITY. HATED OF ALL MEN. 


347 


ness and misery into light and happiness — then we shall 
grow into the life of the Great Shepherd. So I say, as- 
we love, so we are. 

“ ‘ Christ was the Good Samaritan, seeking the lost and 
the cast-away of society, the vile and degraded. Then 
if there are sin-sick, wounded and d^ing souls, made so 
by the arch-enemy, within reach of the professed follow- 
ers of Christ, he requires of them the same forgetfulness- 
of self that He showed when on earth. 

‘ It cannot be that the new conditions of the advanced 
civilization can change the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that 
THE POOR ARE NOT TO HAVE THE GoSPEL PREACHED TO 
THEM, that they are to be utterly neglected and cast off, 
and not allowed a vote in the Church because they cannot 
rent a whole pew. Why give any single person a vote.^ 
Why not give the votes to the seats, and then set up a 
golden image behind the pulpit The object of worship^ 
will be the same in principle as this you are now fol- 
lowing. 

“ ‘ I have wondered if we are not coming to the time 
spoken of by the Apostle Peter when the false teachers- 
shall be among the people: ‘Who through covetousness 
shall with feigned words make merchandise of you.’ 

“ ‘ This principle, which is nothing more than the love of 
moneNq is selfishness; is that which withers all that is 
Godlike in the individual, or in the Church. 

“ ‘ It is a canker worm that will drink the life blood of 
the Church — the self-sacrificing spirit of the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ and His true followers, whom love had in- 
stigated. This in the past is that which has appealed to 
the hearts of the suffering ones of earth as something so 
different from all other forms of religion. 

“‘It is in truth the beginning of the setting up of the 
Abomination of Desolation that Christ speaks of in the 
twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. The condition of 


348 


PERPLEXITY. HATED OF ALL MEN. 


tfiembership of the Church as instituted by Him consisted 
in being washed in His blood from all sins ; but now 
membership, it would appear, consists in the amount of 
money given, — the Abomination of Desolation standing 
in the place of His shed blood.’ 

“ I did not know what I was going to say when I stood 
up to speak, and if I had known I know that I would not 
have had the courage to give such a rebuke.” 

“ Most surely God gave you those words to speak for 
Him, as Christ said He would do in these our days,” 
said Harvey. “ ‘ Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to 
meditate before what ye shall answer; for I will give you 
a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not 
be able to gainsay or resist.”* 

“ This made the minister very angry,” continued 
Verna, “and the next week he told me he did not Want 
me any longer in his church. ‘At any rate, I have ap- 
pointed another teacher for your class,’ he said. 

“ ‘ Very well,’ I said, ‘ I never stay where I am not 
wanted. You can erase my name from the Church 
records.' 

“ ‘ Do you not want a letter?’ he asked. 

“ ‘ No,’ I said, ‘ I would be ashamed to carry a letter to 
any other Church with your name signed to it.’ ” 

“ Your courage was wonderful, and was God-given,” 
said Harvey. “ And now what do you propose to do for 
a membership in a Church ? ” 

“ It may appear to you that I have acted hastily, but I 
am certain that the time has come that Paul’s command 
must be obeyed by me: ‘From such turn away,’| and 
also the voice from heaven saying : ‘ Come out of her, my 
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye 
receive not her plagues. ' 

“ In my Christian experience few people have had the 

*Luke 2i: 14-15. t2 Tim. 3: 5. +Rev. 18: 4. 


PERPLEXITY. — HATED OF ALL MEN. 


349 


deep reverence for God’s House that I have had ; few 
people could have had such a shock in seeing men change 
every part of the great plan of Salvation to suit their sel- 
fish ends. And now I consider that God has sent all this 
as a rebuke to me, because we are told by Christ that ‘ the 
kingdom of God is within you,’* which makes it very 
plain that there is nothing in stone walls or in organiza- 
tions. 

“ The House of the Lord at Jerusalem that at one time 
was ‘filled with the Glory of the Z.ord'-\ was destroyed 
by His command when men turned every part of the ser- 
vice and the house itself into advancement of their own 
selfish ends. So I believe destruction will come to the 
Church of to-day, and the dreadful nature of that fall is. 
set forth in Jeremiah 25 : 30-38. 

“ From this time forth, Zion’s Watchers will be my 
Church. There we have had His precious promise ful- 
filled to us in the past ; and I believe His promise : 

‘ Where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them,’ will be fulfilled wonder- 
fully to us in the future.” 

“ I do hope,” said Harvey, “ that you have been able to 
get comfort from the Scripture, where Christ said : 

‘ Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they 
shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach 
you and shall cast out your name as evil, for the Son of 
Man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy, for, 
behold your reward is great in heaven: for in the like 
manner did their fathers unto the prophets.’ 

“ Yes,” Verna answered, “ I have, and I pray that God 
will lead us in such a way that we may claim His protec- 
tion at all times.” 


*Luke 17: 20-21. 


ti Kings 8: ii. 


JLuke 6: 22-23. 


CHAPTER III. 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 

Dear reader, we return to our story two years after the 
date of the last chapter, the date being 1910, and ask you 
to bear with us for leaving the history of our heroes and 
iheroines a closed chapter for so long a time, without giv- 
ing it to you or to the world. So very much lies before 
in their history that we in our judgment think it will sat- 
isfy you better to hasten on to give a fuller description of 
the far more important events that came into the history 
of the Church and the world, which had so much to do 
with the startling chapters in their lives that came to them 
later on. But the reader can rest assured that the great 
trials in the past of their faith, patience and love were a 
school from which they had graduated with full honors. 

There was no weakness attached to their lives in those 
intervening years. They rose above every temptation, 
with a single eye to God’s glory and an unalterable deter- 
mination to win that goal in the end for which they had 
started out years ago. 

As we try to picture the state of the world, we ask the 
reader to read carefully, and also to bear with us in the 
length of the story of the evil days that hasten on the 
Great Event — the Coming of Christ. 

The three great questions that have in all ages exercised 
the deepest feelings of the human race of all colors and 
classes are at this date still unsolved. The true Christian 
would arrange these three questions in this order of im- 
portance : 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 


351 


First, Salvation for the soul of every man. 

Second, A home and home-comforts for every family. 

Third, No more war, but peace on earth and good-will 
to men. 

Man placed as the leader to bring about a complete 
change of these eyils, has proved an utter failure. 

Satan had induced men to throw off the only guide given 
by the Creator that would work a change, as the leaders did 
in the days following the early Apostolic Church, which 
brought on the centuries of the “ Dark Ages.” Years be- 
fore the present chapters of our story, the Bible was a 
book that was little read, but at this time the Bible had 
become a back number. 

Its Poetry was not appreciated. The majesty and mag- 
nificence of its style, its deftness of phrase and sweetness 
of allusion, as well as the profound significance of its eth- 
ical and religious teaching had ceased to be the priceless 
possession of the world. 

Humanity had thus been impoverished and trouble 
came as the result. 

Man could only look to man as his guide. 

Such a standard as man, for man to follow, is so low 
that decay came very quickly. 

In the home, the Sunday School and the Church the 
great lessons of the Bible were untaught. 

What had taken the place of the Guide that God had 
given to man.? 

College education, which teaches of other things, had 
taken the place of the Bible. In these schools men love 
to delve into the wisdom of the ancient heathen. They 
glory in the mythology of the dead past. Ancient and 
dead theories and the words of idolatrous orators have far 
greater attractions for them than the grand principles and 
precepts of God’s Word— that Book that was given to 
man as the only Guide by the All-wise Being who created 
all things, who created man — which had been laid aside. 


352 


BABYI.ON THE GREAT. 


The idea that this superior education places them in the 
front of all as the leaders of the masses, and gives the 
possessors a precedence over those who have not spent 
their time in that way, has all been a mistake, and has 
worked their own ruin and also that of the world. Had 
they clung to the Bible, the teaching of the Spirit, and the 
great plan of Salvation in the Blood of the Covenant, 
these great truths would have taught them the varied needs 
and requirements of human life, and the way to lift men 
out of their sorrow and turn it to joy. 

They know nothing of the requirements of men in this 
the twentieth century, because, like the priests of the 
Dark Ages, they have shut themselves up with this 
heathen lore, this college education. They mix not with 
common humanity and therefore know nothing of the 
awful struggle of the masses to keep body and soul to- 
gether. : 

If they would enter into the homes of the poor and un- 
derstand the deep overpowering woes that bear them down 
at every step they take, and every hour of their existence, 
they could help them to battle successfully against the 
wrongs that ^ they struggle with. Especially if they 
would bring the glad tidings of Salvation to them ; but 
they do not. 

If they would share the lot of the suffering ones^ of 
earth, then these enslaved ones would listen to the story of 
Salvation as did the poor ones in the days of old, when 
they heard it from the mouth of Jesus Himself. But, 
alas ! they care more to get their salaries made up from 
the well-to-do of society than they care for either the 
souls of the poor or the souls of the rich, whom they feed 
upon. 

What God said to Ezekiel had again become history : 
“ As for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden 


BABYI.ON THE GREAT. ’ 


353 


down with your feet, and they drink that which ye have 
fouled with your feet.”* 

An earnest, seeking soul must drink of the fountain of 
salvation after seeing the ministers, who profess to teach 
this salvation, choose other things, as honor and riches; 
these they have made of more importance than the Salva- 
tion they should seek first for themselves and afterwards 
impart to others. 

For twelve years back the Church had not led in the 
great activities of life. Other organizations outside of the 
Church had tried all these years to solve the great prob- 
lems of philanthropy for humanity.! 

The Church has given far more heed to creed than that 
which comes into men’s lives, in this life or the life to 
come. Presbyterians for Presbyterians, Baptists for Bap- 
tists, and Methodists for Methodists, has been the cry for 
half a century. 

The utter indifference of the Church to the evils that 
have existed for many years in the city governments and 
in the nations has opened the eyes of common people of 
good sense to the true characters and the motives of the 
leaders. 

*Ezek. 34: IQ. 

tA certain Bishop at a gathering of ministers in the year iqoo, in speaking of 
the Apostle Paul and what he had said about man’s duty to man (“ If meat maketh 
my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my 
brother to offend ”) said : “ If Paul were living to-day, he would be a Republican 
Prohibitionist, which called forth shouts and laughter from nearly every minister 
present. This was in answer to what a layman had said about the Church taking 
up the question of Temperance, and to raise a laugh against a worthy man and a 
worthy cause. Shortly after this the same Bishop said, before an audience of 
3,000 persons, “ Women doubt as much as men do. Let me tell you,” he said, 
“ that one of the greatest perils of our times is the underlying religious doubt that 
saps religious life. It is spreading from men to women. It causes the mother to 
be silent at home on the great teachings of religion, and her family are left without 
its consolations and its encouragements.” 

Who is to blame for this state of matters.’ If Bishops can afford to make light 
of the Apostle Paul, who of all men came the nearest to. perfect manhood, to 
Christ Himself, what can they expect of other people ? 


354 


BABYI.ON THE GREAT. 


In their hearts the leaders despised these people, be- 
cause they were ignorant, but they have been given too 
much knowledge to give of their means to uphold such 
fraudulent usurpation of power and place that they have 
assumed, which belong only to the King of Heaven. 

Anything they could give to the poor of the joys of 
eternal life gave no satisfaction, because the leaders, if 
they ever knew of any personal Salvation, had “ forsaken 
their first love, following the ways of Balaam, who loved 
the wages of unrighteousness.” 

The Church had forsaken God, the founder of the 
Church, and God had forsaken them ; and in turn the 
Church had forsaken the masses, making choice of riches 
instead. 

Thus the separation had grown year by year. The 
number of the poor becoming greater and that of the rich 
less, and in this way the attendance at church grew smaller 
every year. 

Women had become nearly as skeptical as men ; a great 
man}^ women had become slaves to alcohol. Evils had 
multiplied until the sad sight was to be seen in almost 
every city of churches standing on many corners empty, 
except when some sensational entertainment was to be 
given that savored far more of operas and theatres than 
a divine service, the only difference being the cheaper 
actors. 

When the real Church services were held a mere hand- 
ful were in attendance, and these services were but a 
form.^ 

Oh ! shame, shame to man, that his pride should reach 
such a height because of a little education, as to throw off' 
the teachings of God that made him, and follow the fool- 
ish imaginations of his own heart! 

At this time we see the world without Salvation, _ and 

*2 Tim. 3: 5. 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 


355 


the great mass of humatiity homeless, making a last, des- 
perate struggle for existence. The masses had long since 
learned to expect nothing from the Church, either for this 
life or the life to come. 

The Church had joined hands with the rich in robbing 
the poor, alike of bread and of Salvation. In their great 
selfishness they had brought ruin upon themselves, the 
Church and the world. Their motto was: “Every man 
for himself.” 

Labor is the great and only standard of commerce and 
exchange of all products, whether of money, the farm, 
manufactories or the mine. As men labor and earn 
money, in the same proportion they can buy of all these 
products. But at this age trusts and syndicates throw men 
out of employment rather than increase it, and also raise 
the price of all things that labor requires. 

How can labor buy if it have nothing to buy with? Yet 
this is the object that- the capitalists are spending their 
every energy to reach. The unemployed men are ready 
to take the places of those who are employed at a lower 
rate, rather than star^^e. Then the ones who have lost 
their places underbid the ones that have underbid them, 
nnd so the starving process goes on, until the time had 
about come that there was no use to manufacture anything 
more, for labor had nothing to buy with. 

Then what comes? 

The capitalists shut themselves up withiii themselves, 
and keep what money they have gotten. Labor, brought 
to the verge of starvation, takes things into its own hands 
and proceeds to take that from the capitalists which had 
been taken from it. Anarchy and lawlessness usurp the 
place of law and order. Men born free and deprived of 
the reward of labor, when they become luingry, know no 
law, no God. 

Both the ruling classes had thought only of themselves. 


356 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 


and this selfishness had brought ruin to all, fulfilling the 
prophecy that : “In these days there was no hire for man, 
neither was there any hire for beast.”* 

Well the prophet h«d said : “ The wisdom of their wise 
men shall perish. ”t 

In the near future judgment would be meted out to both 
alike, so we read of the judgment that lies in the future 
pathway of the shepherds. 

“ A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of 
the principal of the flocks, shall be heard : for the Lord 
hath spoiled their pasture.”^ 

To the rich men of that day who have wrought all this- 
ruin, James the Apostle, said : 

“ Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your 
miseries that shall come upon you. Behold the hire of 
the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which 
is of you kept back by fraud, crieth ; and the cries of them 
which have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord 
of Sabaoth.”§ 

During all this period Zion’s Watchers had given forth 
no uncertain sound. These terrible evils which had 
swept over the world like an overflowing flood were all 
understood by them. Christ as the prophet of the world, 
had foretold it all, and the Holy Spirit had brought all 
things to their remembrance as He had promised. 

They had been taught of the Spirit, and as true watch- 
men they had been faithful in teaching to others what they 
had learned, so that at this time there were over a hun- 
dred thousand of Zion’s Watchers, observing these events 
with the most intense interest, as the forerunners of the 
coming of that One who would make every wrong right. 

Those who would not believe these truths they had faith- 
fully warned of the judgments that would be meted out to 
them, because of their evil course. These Watchers were 


*Zech. 8: lo. 


tisa. 29: 14. 


JJer. 25: 36. 


§James 5: 1-4. 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 357 

faithful watchmen. “ They would be clear of the blood of 
all men.” 

These warnings were beginning to make the evil in the 
natures of those who were warned to rise up in opposi- 
tion, which was soon fanned into a flame of fierce perse- 
cution against those who were living lives of righteousness 
and testifying against them. 

Thus we see that Salvation for the world and homes for 
the homeless, with man as the ruling power, were the two 
great evils that had not been remedied by man. But the 
awful fact was manifest that men with an unnatural greed 
had robbed all others as well as themselves of Salvation, 
and the great majority were also homeless from this hell- 
ish greed. 

The learned men and the rich had given away to the 

hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, 
to try them that dwell upon earth.”* 

This giving away to the temptation of choosing the 
honors and riches of this world which perish with the 
using, instead of the heavenly, and forcing others to do 
the same, was felt by every nation on earth. As we have 
said before, the laborer could not buy because there was 
no labor. Whatever articles of merchandise were ready 
for sale were kept in storehouses unsold. 

This dreadful state of matters in the home, in the 
Church and between labor and capital brought a still 
greater calamity among the nations. If business men had 
struggled against each other and against the capitalists, the 
same distress was felt among the nations. The same utter 
•disregard for the rights of others that man had exercised 
against his brother was entered upon by the nations. 

The rulers of each of the nations thought that if they 
could get hold of the trade and commerce of some other 
nation that stood most in their way of an open door or a 


*Rev. 3: 10. 


35S 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 


market for the exports of their nation, that it would bring" 
prosperity to them. 

They lost sight of the first and great fact what makes a 
nation prosperous and happy is the home market. A 
people who have plenty of work and are well paid — which 
means money to buy all articles of merchandise — are a 
satisfied, prosperous people. 

This state of matters brought great distress among the 
nations. So we read: “ Nation shall rise against nation, 
and kingdom against kingdom,”* “and upon the earth 
distress of nations with perplexity. 

At the beginning of these “ wars and rumors of wars 
the capitalists of every nation found a safer investment for 
all the stolen money they had in their possession in lend- 
ing to the nations to carry on these wars instead of to the 
many industries of the world. 

All these efforts on the part of the nations only aug- 
mented the misery of the people and the “ distress of the 
nations.” 

“ War and the enlistment of so many men bring fam- 
ines, and the famines bring pestilences. All these were 
the beginnings of the sorrows. 

* * * ^ * 

We must now return to Jerusalem and the gathering of 
the tribe of Judah to Palestine. 

This second return of the tribe of Judah, this “gather- 
ing together of the dispersed of the tribe of Judah from 
the four corners of the earth ”§ is the one great leading 
event that Zion’s Watchers have been interested in from 
the very first of their meetings, — Judah returned, Jer’usa- 
lem once more built, Palestine at last peopled with 
Jews, — the W atchers knew that a very short period of time 
would elapse before the Bridegroom woidd come to claim 
His Bride. 


*Math. 24: 7. 


tLuke 21: 25. 


$Malh. 24: 8. 


ilsa. II : 1 1-12. 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 


359 


They knew that that great event was the star of hope 
that was bringing Judah once more to Palestine. This 
hope of fifty generations is at last realized, the number- 
less secret and public prayers of those generations are 
answered, prayers which have been so often wrung from 
sorrowful hearts, which have learned to live amidst the 
surroundings of utter despair. Back to the land of their 
fathers, the land of promise, the land of Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob, they have come, separated, “ scattered,’^ 
“ peeled,” scorned and homeless no more. 

Poor Judah ! truly thou didst ‘‘go up from the prey 
and, although returned, thou hast not yet the hope that 
maketh glad the soul of man, the knowledge of the “ great 
things of the law,” — salvation trom eternal death. 

Over three millions of the tribe of Judah had returned 
at this time.* Bustle and activity were manifest every- 
where. Many buildings were being built, and yet tens of 
thousands of people were living in tents and sleeping in 
the open air, because there was no place for them.”t 
No houses to live in. 

Happiness beamed on every face, although some suf- 
fered great privations. But the undying hope of so many 
centuries now being realized, buoyed them up in the midst 
of so much suffering. 

In strange contrast was this busy, happy state of these 
people, with the chaotic state of the nations of the world. 
The city governments were rotten to the very core. No 
man could get a place as alderman, fireman, policeman or 
any other officer unless he would do the bidding of the 
mayors and the leaders. No man could get an office un- 
less he gave part of his salary back to the bosses. This 
filled every office in the gift of the city corporation with 
incapable men, men who did not know their duties, men 
who did not care for mercy, truth or justice. 


*1910. 


tZech, 10: 10. 


360 


BABYLON THE GREAT. 


No worse state could exist with such officials. Vice of 
all kinds was planted and fostered on every street by the 
city "‘fathers.” Incendiarism and anarchy were of daily 
occurrence. Utter incapacity and indifference were 
shown by the firemen. Much property was destroyed, 
and many lives were lost in consequence. Accidents of the 
most dreadful kind on railroads and steamboats, were daily 
happening. The papers were full of fearful holocausts 
because of the power that the rum fiend exercises over the 
city governments by the brewers and saloon-keepers, bet- 
ter named. Hell’s Harvesters, which were now the ruling 
power in every city, and the leaders in planting every 
vice. 

The famines in India, “ the Land of Hunger,” and 
China, were forgotten by the Christian nations. Soup 
kitchens had long been a necessity in the cities of the 
Christian world. Even these were found insufficient to 
meet the demands upon them. 

On many battlefields thousands of the best men were 
falling thick and fast.* Since the time of the flood no such 
widespread evils had swept over the world. 

It was indeed as the Lord said : “ From the time that it 
goeth forth it shall take you : for morning by morning it 
it shall pass over, by day and by night ; and it shall be a 
vexation even to understand the report.”^ 

Men and women who had the love of God in them 
would gladly have shut their eyes to these scenes, but they 
could not. It was a vexation to them to hear the reports 
without seeing the actions. Yet it was only the begin- 
ning of the “ great tribulation, such as was not from the 
beginning of the world to this time,” and would go on 
until nothing like it ever shall be.”t 

The sacrificing of men’s lives in every form was of such 


■*Isa. 28: 19. 


tMath. 24: 21-22. 


BABYI.ON THE GREAT. 361 

common occurrence that an apathy had taken possession 
of many men that was hard to understand. 

The nations had taken a like course with the Church 
and capitalists, a course from which nothing could turn 
them back. 

That course was as a mighty river sweeping from a de- 
file, and sweeping down, down over a steep decline which 
grew more precipitous as it sped onward to its final leap. 

The home, the Church and the nations as thus consti- 
tuted, were rushing madly to their doom. 


CHAPTER IV. 


GLAD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 

We will once again introduce our readers to Zion’s 
Watchers. 

This meeting brings the reader and the Watchers to- 
gether at the close of the year 1911. This is the close of 
the eighteenth year of the generation in which “ the all 
things” — the wonderful historical events as foretold would 
come to pass just previous to His coming again, and the 
generation in which He will come. The period in which 
every one of the 144,000 of Israel are living, who will be 
“ sealed as the servants of God.” 

We will outline in part the history of the advocates of 
truth during the three intervening years. 

At the annual meeting of the Watchers, the “ Outlook 
Feast,” in the year 1908, Verna had said to the assembled 
company, that most certainly a call had come to them 
from the Master of the Great Feast, to go out two by two 
over all the cities of Israel and herald the tidings of the 
coming King and Kingdom. 

The message that came to them, she said, was “ Verily 
I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of 
Israel until the Son of Man be come.”* 

“ To me,” she said, “ it is as a command, because no 
people but ourselves fully believe that the Teutons as a 
people are Israel. Nor had there ever been a people that 


*Malh. 10: 23. 


GLAD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 36;^ 

believed that the House of Israel had an existence until 
this fact was shown to the Watchers. 

“ Not even in Christ’s day were there any cities of the 
House of Israel known. The cities of Palestine in the 
days of the Son of Man were those of tlie House of 
Judah. Christ said: ‘I am not sent but unto the lost 
sheep of the House of Israel.’* 

“ The House of Judah was not lost, and this tribe re- 
jected Him when He did come, as it was prophesied : 
‘ From the prey, my son, thou art gone up.’t ‘ He came 
unto His own, and His own (tribe) received Him not.’j 

^ The Watchers alone believe that the Teutons are the 
blouse of Israel, who had for many centuries been lost to 
the world, and the fact that the Son of Man had not come 
back to the world is also manifested. 

“ Yet' He has said to us that ‘ before ye have gone over 
all the cities of Israel telling these tidings of My coming,. 
I will have come.’ 

“ It appears to me,” continued Verna, “a loving ser- 
vice that the Bridegroom expects us to do for Him, to go 
and tell to the Teutons that they are Lost Israel, and show 
to them how wonderfully God, so far, has fulfilled all His 
promises to Abraham, and also to help to prepare a peo- 
ple from among them to make up the number of 144,000,. 
and to watch for His coming.” 

Miss Melrose at once sided with Verna, and said : 

“ Christ has shown us that He is coming back to earth 
soon and He is now saying to us: ‘ If you are of those 
who love my appearing, then go and tell others what the 
Holy Spirit has shown to you.’ ” 

Harvey had been to Britain on his own account with 
this object in view. 

He told the convention of the success which he had had,, 
and also that the last quoted Scripture was his commis- 


*Math. 15: 24. 


tGen, 49: 9 


JJohn i: II. 


364 


GLAD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 


sion, and he was doing all he could to carry it out. He 
had hesitated to try to get others to do as he had done for 
fear lest impulse might lead to action on the part of some 
before they were ready to go. He knew that the Spirit of 
God would call those that would go and who would serve 
His cause best. 

“And now,” said he, “I belieye that the call has come 
to this gathering. Who will obey the call?” 

Many responded, and chose each of them his partner. 
Harvey and Samuel Barnes went out alone, each on differ- 
ent routes. Harvey’s route was through the northern 
states and Canada. Samuel Barnes went to Australia. 

The women went out two and two. Verna and Winnie 
Cameron went out together, choosing the southern States 
of America as their route. The different parts of the 
world were divided up as nearly equal as possible among 
the ones who went out bearing the Glad News. 

It was agreed that if they should not have “ gone over 
all the cities ” within the period of three years, they would 
return at the end of that time. 

They took neither “ purse nor scrip” with them. They 
trusted in God for what they needed for the journey.* 

Verna, Harvey and all the others felt that the winning 
of their own crown depended on their faithfulness and de- 
votion to this call. Verna and Harvey knew that extreme 
activity was their only safeguard ; not from giving way to 
temptation, but from dropping into a state that would be 
little better than continual death. This separation that 
was ever before them gave them courage to undertake this 
work for the One they loved best : that which they might 
have hesitated to undertake with other surroundings. 

Their parting words were few. A warm clasp of the 
hand ; a long, tender look into each other’s eyes ; the sig- 
nificant touch of the Watcher’s emblem that they wore, 


*Luke 10: 4. 


GLAD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 


365 


that twice before had meant so much to each of them. 
Slowly and very brokenly they repeated the Watchword 
while their hands were still clasped, — “Father, not my 
will, but Thine be done.” There was not any goodby 
said by either. The touch of their emblems and their 
watchword again repeated meant more to them than vol- 
umes of speech. They were going far apart, for how 
long, they knew not. Though they were to be bodily 
separated, yet distance could not hide the image or their 
personality one from the other. The casket that held each 
one’s image was the other’s heart, and no one else could 
enter or look therein, excepting God, who had placed that 
love there, to work out His wonderful purposes in the 
world. 

If all suffering ones could be made to see that through 
sorrow they were filing up God's plan of life for them- 
selves in these the perilous times, they would rejoice that 
they were partakers of Christ’s sufferings, for .when His 
glory shall be revealed, they would be glad also with ex- 
ceeding joy.* 

They had the past and the present consolation of a con- 
stant, abiding love for each other, that was as changeless 
as the everlasting hills, yet as restless as the ocean waves. 

All unknown to themselves this intensity of love from 
being apart, this that was so much of their earthly life yet 
a sealed book, made each of them much more earnest 
workers for their greater love. The book of another and 
better life, they knew, would never be a closed book to 
them. In it, for them, there were not any sighs or heart- 
aches, partings or tears, but instead there' was written 
therein rest, joy, mirth, sweetest carols and eternal frui- 
tion of love. 

All this and much more was awaiting them when they 
had done with earth, and every day past was one day 
nearer Home. 


Peter 4: 13. 


366 


GI.AD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 


Thus armed, they went forth to battle the forces of 
earth and hell witli heavenly weapons, — love and sympa- 
thy for all suffering ones. Their marching orders were to 
seek only the burdened and heavy-laden hearts. To bid 
the poor of the earth, whose cup of sorrow had run over 
many times with bitter tears, to the, feast of the King of 
Heaven^ which had taken six thousand years to pre- 
pare. 

The story of their three years’ wanderings from city to 
city would fill many volumes. They had listened to many 
tales from weary hearts, and had told them of the feast 
that was being prepared for them and had bidden them to 
that feast in the name of the Master of the feast, giving 
each one who accepted the invitation the new reading of 
the Travellers’ Guide Book that had been issued in heaven 
ages before. 

***** 

The three years have ended and they have returned with 
songs of joy, because the Lord had been with them and 
had blessed them in their going away and in their coming 
back again. 

Three years of probation had worked a change in every 
one of them. In Verna’s face a heavenly light shone when 
she met Harvey. When she gave him her hand it was in a 
way that said : “I am still faithful.” 

“ Each year the gray had deepened a shade in her 
hair,” which made sweeter the expression that always re- 
mained on her face. 

Harvey said to her : “I see you have now gray hairs 
among the brown.” 

Yes,” she said, am three years nearer my home 
rest, than when you saw me last. These gray hairs are 
silent witnesses and comforting reminders of that fact.” 

Verna’s joyous nature encouraged every one with whom 
she met ; it had strengthened many weak ones; it had 


GLAD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 


367 


warmed wintry hours into summer for many who had 
known little of sunshine. No one had felt this as much 
as did Harvey. How much she had helped him, he only 
could tell. 

Many times in the three years he had lived over the few 
hours he had spent with Verna, and the lessons of faith- 
fulness she had taught him which had had a softening in- 
fluence upon his whole character. She had helped him 
and he had wonderfully helped others. Such is the 
power of a goo<l life and a cheerful disposition. 

In the few words that passed between Verna and Har- 
vey after the three years’ absence, he said to her : 

I have had dreams that caused my heart to flutter with 
delight. Abstracted thoughts took me into dreamland. 
When in that fairy-land I had dreams which all came true, 
because I knew we wished as one ; in those dreams you 
and I were one. The yearning of our hearts had become 
a reality. Then when I awoke from my dreams it was 
with the conscious fact before me that I was nearer the 
goal where human sufferings and disappointed passions 
would all be past, and a glorious birth into the better 
state, when ears and eyes, heart and soul, thought and 
mind, would all be illumined and filled with heavenly 
light, and when this unsatisfied soul would be changed 
into the divine.”* 

I have passed through it all,” she answered. “This 
is God’s goodness to us, and is our answer to our daily 
prayers for each other. Yes, Harvey, there is a blessed 
dream for us in the blessed Land of Love, froji? which 
we will not wake to weep. Let us cheer up ; the years of 
this life will soon be ended for us. 

“ ‘Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee.’ ” 

# * # * * 


*i John 3; 2. 


368 


GLAD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 


At the next outlook feast Harvey addressed the Watch- 
ers and said : 

“ I think that we have done all that we could to carry 
out the purposes of God. We are told that every man 
that hath the hope of seeing Christ coming again, puri- 
fieth himself. Now what is it that gives any man living 
this hope There is but one answer, — Knowledge. A 
knowledge of His coming causes us to believe He will 
come. A knowledge of preceding events will cause any 
man who believes to watch the course of events leading 
up to His coming. 

“ Then as events become history a hope arises within 
the heart that we may see His Glorious Appearing. A 
knowledge that there will be but two classes on that day,, 
one class filled with supernal joys, the other with agoniz- 
ing woes, makes us search our hearts to see if we can as- 
pire to be of the class that will rise to meet Him when He 
comes. What the Spirit tells us is wrong within us we 
throw off, and a preparing for that event becomes a part 
of ourselves. Then as knowledge and belief prepare us 
for His coming, the Spirit of God is ready to place His 
seal upon all who have thus given heed to His teachings. 

So we read : “ Hurt not the earth * * * * till we have 
sealed the servants of God in their foreheads.”* 

“ This seal placed upon any one’s brow is a safeguard 
against all and every judgment that will come upon the 
earth after this sealing. There shall not be one lacking of 
the sealed ones when He comes. 

“ The judgments of the coming King upon the earth 
will come only upon the earth after His servants are 
sealed, and we must not forget that His judgments come 
upon the earth just previous to His coming. 

“ According to the word of His angels, as soon as His 
servants are ready and are sealed, the way is opened for 
His coming.' 

*Rev. 7: 3. 


GI.AD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 


369 


“ I verily believe that there are now at least 144,000 
who have this belief and knowledge, and perhaps even 
now He has placed His seal upon them. 

“ And I also believe that the ones of the House of Israel, 
and those of the House of Judah required by God as His 
witnesses are all sealed. 

“ These witnesses who have borne testimony to the two 
covenants^ — the covenant of Works and the covenant of 
Grace, will suffer violent death at the hands of their ene- 
mies just previous to His coming, and are those whose 
bodies shall lie unburied for three days and a half and will 
come back into life again, when they hear His voice say- 
ing ; ‘ Come up hither.’ 

“ These and the 144,000 shall be caught up together to 
meet the Lord as He comes to earth.* 

“ When the 144,000 rise to meet Him, ‘ they will have 
been purified even as He is pure.’ Ah ! my friends ! can 
we measure up to that standard.^ Ask God to search our 
hearts to see if there is any evil way in us. 

“ Having run the race thus far ‘ Let us lay aside every 
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run 
with patience the race that is set before us.’ 

“ I believe that the birthright of being one that is called 
to the marriage supper of the Lamb is yours. Then sell 
not that birthright for anything there is on earth. I warn 
you that trials await you in the near future, because the 
time of His coming draweth near. 

“So we read: ‘And ye shall be hated of all men for 
my name’s sake.’ But the seal of God will keep you safe 
from the rage of your enemies. He comforts yon saying : 
‘ There shall not a hair of your head perish. In your 
patience possess ye your souls.’ 

“ ‘ He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
saved.’ 


*Rev: II 


12 ; I Thess. 4: 15-18. 


370 


GI.AD NEWS PKOCLAIMED. 


“Years ago,” continued Harvey, “when we started 
out in this work, the most interesting prophetic event that 
we watched for, leading up to the consummation of our 
blessed hope, was the return of the tribe of Judah to Pal- 
estine. Now we have not to wait for that event, for it has 
become history. 

Judah’s scattered ones have now returned and are 
once more rejoicing in the possession of great prosperity. 
Silver and gold, cattle and goods in great abundance they 
have gathered from the outside world and brought with 
them into the home land of their fathers. 

“Many Jews who had thrown off the teaching of their 
fathers years before, and who believed not in any good 
coming to their race by a return to Palestine, have re- 
turned because of the great prosperity that has attended 
the return of their brethren, who had faith in the faithful- 
ness of the God of their fathers who had promised to bring 
them back the second time, and give them homes and 
blessing.” 

Then Harvey was silent for some time, and when he 
spoke again it was with a trembling voice, as he said : 

“ There is yet another dark chapter of woe in the path- 
way of this people, before their joys are made permanent 
for this life or the life to come, from which there is no 
escape for them. 

“ Jerusalem will yet be surrounded, besieged and taken 
by armies, and they shall he stripped of all their gathered 
riches, many of them slain, and one-half of those that re- 
main shall go again into captivity.* 

“ It has been understood that this captivity referred to 
in Luke was fulfilled when the Romans besieged Jerusa- 
lem in A. D. 70 ; but it refers to another and more terri- 
ble event in the near future. My sympathies go out to 
this people because of the dark history of mysterious 

*Zech. 14: 2; also Luke 21: 24. 


GLAD NEWS PROCLAIMED. 3^1 

sorrow they have had to pass through, but it is all in the 
plan of God. 

“In this return to ‘Jerusalem they still hold on to the 
covena<it of Works, a rebuilt temple and an altar for sac- 
rifice, with the old form of worship, excepting for the 
changes brought in by the rabbis. 

“ At.this driving out Gcd will effectually and forever 
change all that. 

“ Can we measure up their disappointment when those 
days of desolation come to them with any circumstance in 
all the annals of individuals or nations? No; there is no 
parallel case in the history of any people or nation since 
man was created, whatever there may have been in the 
lives of any individuals.” 

As Harvey said this he could go no further. For the 
time his voice broke. He had suffered, he thought, as 
much asany man could suffer and retain his reason. No 
wonder he felt so much sympathy for others. But, he 
thought, “ I shall yet be comforted, and God will return 
to them also with mercies and blessings according as their 
years have been passed in sorrow and bereavement.” 

When he could control his feelings again he said : 

“ But after this captivity these very Jews shall be blessed 
above all the people that have ever lived upon the earth. 
For then shall this nation be born into the kingdom* in a 
day and have untold earthly blessings as well.” 


*Isa. 66: 8-14. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 

Three months after the Outlook Feast recorded in the 
last chapter the civilized world was startled by the news 
that an army of 500,000 Russian soldiers were sweeping 
through Turkey, heading towards Jerusalem, and that the 
advance guard were already on the outskirts of the Sacred 
City. 

Nearly all this mighty host were “ riding upon horses.’^ 
They were the rough and ready riders from every part of 
Russia. They rode what were considered the best mounts 
of the 30 , 000,000 horses of the Russian Empire. 

Still more startling was the news that came some days 
later that another army of 500,000 were massed near the 
Turkish Border, ready to rush to the help of their coun- 
trymen, if that help were needed. 

No such array of cavalry had ever made the earth to 
tremble with the trampling ol horses’ hoofs in any past 
history of the world. The mad rush of Scythian horse- 
men when they came from the same country and through 
the same mountain passes and destroyed the mighty king- 
dom of Assyria, in the days of old, was as nothing com- 
pared with this one. 

The historian records that “ Horde after horde of 
Scythians poured through the passes of the Caucasus and 
blackened the rich plains of the south. On they came 
like a flight of locusts, countless, irresistible.” 

This host was far more formidable than the Scythians, 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


373 


for they not only blackened the plains, but they filled the 
valleys of Palestine. They swept on, on, like a great 

storm cloud,” so that they “ covered the land.” 

The Czar and his advisers promised the officers and 
soldiers a share in the spoils of the Jews. A greater share 
was promised to the most courageous and daring, who 
would follow their country’s standard without faltering, 
no matter what hardships they encountered. 

The Russians had always considered the 5,000,000 
Jews in Russia their adversaries.* Did they not thrive in 
business when the Russians were starving. In going 
back to Palestine, had not the Jews taken a great part of 
this wealth with them.? Now the Jews had gathered 
great riches and were happy, while the Russians were 
pinched and starving from the numerous wars they had 
been engaged in, in other parts of the world. Now they 
would go and spoil the Jews. Not only were the soldiers 
of Russia promised a share of the wealth, but the leaders 
said : “ Does not the spoil of Afghanistan, India and even 
China lie before you in your victorious march.?” 

At this time the Turks still had nominal possession of 
Palestine. The reigning Sultan and his courts were in 
such straits for money that when Russia made overtures 
to that court to pay an indemnity to them for over-running 
Palestine, they readily assented, so that many of the Turks 
were among the invading army. 

The Turks had taken a recompense from Russia for the 
spoiling of the Jews, but the Lord asks the inhabitants of 
Tyre and Sidon (the Turks): “Will ye render me a 
recompense,”! for “ the selling of my people, the chil- 
dren of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem unto the 
■Grecians, (the Greek Church and the Greek people) that 
ye might remove them far from your border.?” But the 
Lord wdll mete out a recompense for both Turks and Rus- 
sians in the near future. | 


*Ezek. 38: 17. 


*Joel 3: 4. 


tJoel 3: 4-8. 


374 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


No wonder the world stood aghast at this new and ter- 
rible condition of affairs. 

Nation had fought with nation until they were about 
worn out. Thousands of their best men had fallen on 
battle ffelds. Money had been freely spent and blood had 
been freely spilled by the nations, each trying to get some 
advantage over the other, to get a firmer hold on com- 
merce. The wise heads among them said that each ag- 
gressive move on their part would settle the struggle in 
their favor and against the other nation. 

But alas ! here was a danger from a source little ex- 
pected. It was thought that Russia’s vitality was about 
exhausted as well as their own, for famine had been 
troubling her for years. But it would appear she had 
been husbanding her resources. They knew not that it 
was sheer desperation on the part of the nation and the in- 
dividual as well. Each man in that mighty host had 
helped the nation by offering to go practically without pay 
for a share of the spoil, and the tremendous vitality and 
energy of that army was from the individualism that was 
in the ranks of it, which welded the whole togfether as one 
man. 

Here was the largest body of cavalry ever brought into 
the field at one time ; the most mobile host that ever gath- 
ered on the face of the earth. An army of desperate men 
inured to hardship and fatigue all their lives in a cold 
northern climate. 

When would this desperate state of matters end.? What 
did it all mean ? 

We think we cannot do better in explaining what it all 
meant, than by quoting an address that was given by 
Verna at the gathering of Zion’s Watchers, shortly after 
the world was startled by the news of Russia’s invasion. 
We love to record the words of wisdom she uttered, be- 
cause they were words that were truly inspired. But no 


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THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


375 


pen can do her justice, because her earnest personality 
can not be seen or felt, nor her voice heard, that of itself 
was melody. In part she said : 

“ A close student of the Bible would see that Japheth 
was the third son of Noah, as we read in the tenth chap- 
ter of Genesis. ‘ The sons of Japheth : Gomar and 
Magog, — Tubal and Meshech, and the sons of Goman, 
Ashkenez, Riphath and Togarmah.’* 

“ Now if the Bible student will turn to the map in his 
Bible entitled the ‘ Distribution of the sons of Noah,’ a 
copy of which I now hold in my hand, he will see that 
the sons and the grandsons of Japheth settled to the far 
north, around and north of the Black arjd Caspian Seas. 
The Black Sea was once called the Sea of Ashkenez, who 
was the grandson of Japheth. 

“It is a fact well known that the Babylonians, the 
Medes and Persians, the Macedonians nor yet the Romans 
ever penetrated into this cold land of the north, for the 
conquest of this people or to take possession of this land. 

‘‘The sons of Japheth having once settled there after 
the flood, remained there and aie known by their new 
name — the Russians. 

“ Now if we turn to the twenty-eighth chapter of Eze- 
kiel we shall see that the Loid sent a message to the sons 
of Japheth : ‘ Thus saith the Lord, To the land of Magog, 
the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy 
against him. * * * Gomar and all his bands: the House 
of Togarmah of the North quarters, and all his bands. 
* * * * In the latter years thou shalt come unto the land 
that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out 
of many people (the return of the Jews), against the 
mountains of Israel, which have always been waste: but 
it is brought forth out of the nations. Thou shalt ascend 
and come like a storm, thou shalt be as a cloud to cover 


*Gen. lo. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


the land, thou and all thy. bands, and many people with 
thee. 

“ ‘And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of un- 
walled villages ; I will go to them that are at rest, that 
dwell safely, all of them without walls, and having 
neither bars nor gates. 

“ ‘ To take a spoil and to take a prey ; to turn thine 
hands upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, 
and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, 
which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the 
midst of the land. 

“‘Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, 
with all the young lions thereof shall say unto thee, art 
thou come to take a spoil. ^ Hast thou gathered thy 
company to take a prey.^ to carry away silver and gold, 
to take away great spoil 

“ ‘ Therefore son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, 
Thus saith the Lord God, In that day when my people of 
Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it.? 

“ ‘ And thou shalt come out of thy place out of the 
north parts, thou and many people with thee, all of them 
riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army. 

“ ‘ And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel 
as a cloud to cover the land ; it shall be in the latter days 
and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen 
may know me when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, 
before their eyes.’* 

“ This is a plain story. 

“ The sons of Japheth were to come from their first and 
and only dwelling place — the ‘ Land of the North, as a 
cloud to cover the land,’ in the ‘ latter years’ ‘ to take a 
spoil’ from ‘ the people (the Jews) that are gathered out 
of the nations.’ 

“ It has taken Russia many centuries to become the 


“Ezek. 38: 8-9-H-12-13-15-16. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 377 

mighty empire that at this time sets itself against the 
world. Noah, the father of Japheth, said before he died, 
that ‘ God shall enlarge Japheth and He shall dwell in 
the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.’* 

“ The first indication of Russia’s taking her place 
among the nations of the earth was in the reign of Peter 
the Great, who united the many hordes and bands of Me- 
shech and Tubal into one Empire, his only earthly aid be- 
ing his indomitable will. 

“ He saw in the geographical position of Russia, but 
one natural outlet, — the Dardanelles — for commerce with 
the outside world, which was then held in possession by 
a stronger nation. But he attempted and successfully ac- 
complished what would have seemed under the existing 
cii'cumstances an impossibility to any other man. 

“Amid the frosts and snow of the almost arctic 
regions he built a city over whose site the waters of the 
ocean once flowed, filling up hundreds of those acres of 
shoal waters until deep water was reached, and from that 
waste of mire and water has arisen the most regularly 
built, and one of the most splendid capitals of the world. 

“ The great works accomplished by Peter the Great 
have been an incentive to action, a watchword to the 
whole Russian people for conquest and power ; so that to- 
day Russia is the first in extent of the empires of the 
globe. Although Peter the Great opened a way to the 
outside world through the Baltic, yet it is not the natural 
outlet for such a mighty people. The whole length of the 
Baltic and the outlet of that sea, are held in possession by 
the most powerful maritime nations of the world, while 
the same state of matters exists in the ocean-gates of the 
Mediterranean Sea ; so that the unique geographical posi- 
tion of Russia was seen thus early by Peter the Great. 

' So long as Russia is thus shut in, will this seeking for 
power and freedom continue. 


*Gen. 9: 27. 


378 THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 

“There cannot be a doubt that even the formation of 
the land and sea of Europe and its surroundings were but 
a part of the Great Plan of campaign laid out by the 
Great Creator and Commander-in-Chief for His purposes 
in the time of the end. For He says respecting Russia : 
‘Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old tiiiie by my 
servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those 
days many years that I would bring thee (Russia) against 
them (Israel)?”* Still further back In the ages we are 
told that Abraham’s seed would ‘ possess the gates of his 
enemies.’ This is that prophecy fulfilled. Russia is the 
enemy of old times, the gates of the Baltic and the Med- 
iterranean are held b}. Israel. 

“ Russia in her desire to gain the Dardanelles, this cov- 
eted outlet to the sea, has fostered a desire in the people 
for universal Empire. They have long coveted, long 
striven to gain possession of the Dardanelles and the over- 
land route to India. 

“ This desire on the part of Russia has been cherished 
as a sacred legacy since the days of Peter the Great. 
That celebrated prince left to his successors a famous ‘ last 
will and testament.’ The ninth article of that will con- 
tained the following policy. To the Russian statesmen 
he wrote : 

“ ‘ Take every possible means of gaining Constantinople 
and the Indies (for he who rules there will be the true 
sovereign of the world.) Excite war in Tuikey and Per- 
sia ; establish fortresses on the Black Sea; accelerate as 
much as possible the decay of Persia ; penetrate to the 
Persian Gulf; advance to the Indies, which are the great 
depot of the world. Once there we can do without the 
gold of England.’ 

“ This will was left to the Russian people by Peter the 
Great in 1725, and for the intervening period of nearly 


*Ezek. 38: 17. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 379^ 

two centuries this line of policy has been persistently fol- 
lowed by the Russian people. 

At this gathering of Judah and Israel into Palestine 
they see these two prizes, which they have been so ear- 
nestly seeking, about to slip from their grasp, and pass 
forever into the possession of their old enemy. 

“ Her generals and her statesmen are not to be 
thwarted in this their hope of a hundred years. They 
care not how they get possession of the coveted prize. 
They will rule the world if they can. 

“ A paper by Julian Ralph in ‘ Harper’s Magazine ’ oiv 
the stir and activity of the Russian nation is well worth 
remembering and reading about. He says: 

“ ‘ When Russia wishes to gain advantages westward,, 
in Europe, she must go about it secretly, in a burrowing, 
diplomatic way. In the other direction, on the Asiatic 
side, however, she moves boldly and carelessly. "Her ob- 
ject is the gaining of new territory, the development of 
her own resources and the increase of her army, navy and 
her commerce. To achieve these ends her statesmen 
work sleeplessly, her generals move onward ruthlessly.’ 

“ Mr. Ralph furnishes various portraits of Russian 
statesmen, military men and others. Along with these he 
gives pages of facts, going to show the gigantic forward 
strides of the Czar’s Empire among the kingdoms of the 
earth. 

“ We can well understand this spirit, looking at the 
portraits of Russians in this article, men powerful, fear- 
less, aggressive and intellectual, overflowing with the 
prophetic spirit of a great destiny. He asks : ‘ Are the 
Russians, after all, the coming race.^’ 

“ In the spring of the year 1900, the Russian govern- 
ment made preparation for this very time of invasion. 
Russian engineers, by the order of their government, pre- 
viously made great preparations for the transporting of 


38 o 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


troops to the Turkish border. This preparation consist- 
ed in the laying of double tracks on the railroads, a great 
number of cars were built and every facility for watering 
and feeding the horses along the different routes leading 
up to a certain point was made. 

“ To test these preparations for quick movement of 
troops, every part of the plan was carried out at that time, 
and in the incredibly short space ot about three weeks’ 
time 250,000 soldiers were carried to a certain place on 
the Turkish border. 

“ When the Russian government was asked what their 
object was in gathering this great number of soldiers, 
their answer was that the engineers and generals were try- 
ing how quickly they could mass a certain number of sol- 
diers in a certain time. 

“ It is no wonder that our hearts are made to burn with- 
in us when we read that this command came from the 
Lord to ‘ Meshech and Tubal,’ 2,500 years ago. 

“ ‘ Be thou prepared and prepare thyself, thou and thy 
company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a 
guard unto them.’* 

“ All unknown to the Russians they are fulfilling a des- 
tiny that it is impossible for them to escape from. 

“ They have made preparations to march along a high- 
way that was prepared for them 2,500 years ago. 

“ Mr. Norman is the author of a book on the Far East 
published in 1900, whose prophecies have been strikingly 
fulfilled — many of them dealing with Russia’s future ac- 
tions, and considered only daring conjectures at the time 
they were made, but which have become history. In part 
he said : 

‘ The Eastern Question is: How will Russia try to 
again get Constantinople.? The Far Eastern Question is : 
How will Russia succeed in dominating China.? The 

^Ezek. 38: 7. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 381 

question of questions for the British Empire is: Will 
Russia attempt to invade India? 

“‘The Triple Alliance is a league against Russia. 
The Dual Alliance is Russia’s reply. Russia called the 
nations to the conference of Peace. 

“ ‘ It would be easier to say what is not Russia. In 
world affairs wherever you turn you see Russia ; wher- 
ever you listen you hear her. She moves in every path, 
she is mining in every claim. The ‘creeping murmur’ 
of the world is her footfall — the ‘ poring dark’ is her veil. 
To the challenge of the nations as they peer from their 
borders, comes ever the same reply. 

“ ‘ Who goes there? 

“ ‘ Russia.’ 

This extraordinary move now on the part of Russia we 
see has been well set forth by prophecy in God’s Word 
and by historians. If the world has been surprised, 
we are not, for we have been watching for just such an 
event. 

“ We know that ever since Peter the Great lived, Rus- 
sia has been unjustly aggressive. Had the same forcible 
tactics been carried out in this invasion of Palestine as had 
always characterized the Russian people, the world would 
not have been so much surprised. 

“ But it is only a decade since the Czar and his minis- 
ters called the world to a conference of peace at the 
Hague, asking the nations to disarm and henceforth seek 
the ways of peace. 

“ Strange as it may seem, God had foreshadowed even 
this episode, when He says : ‘ It shall also come to pass 
that at the same time, things shall come into thy mind, 
and thou shalt think an evil thought. I will go up to the 
land of unwalled villages to take a spoil and to take a 
prey.* 

*Ezek. 38: 10-12. 


3S3 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


“ An evil thought indeed when any people, by force of 
^rms, would go to despoil a peaceable nation who had 
borne untold sufferings generation after generation for 
2,000 years. After all the terrible sufferings of Judah, 
surely all people should rejoice in seeing them prosperous 
iind happy, in their return to the land of their fathers. 

“ No wonder the nations are dumfounded at this fla- 
grant violation of the adopted resolutions of the Peace Con- 
gress of the Hague by the very nation that called that 
congress together. Here was a people who had not 
thought of war, a people who thought that no nation 
could have a thought of war with them. They were at 
home at last and at rest, and were satisfied. So much did 
they trust the outside world, that they were dwelling in 
unwalled villages, all of them dwelling without walls, 
and having neither bars nor gates 

This invasion of Palestine by Russia is the work of 
barbarians, but it is an injustice that God will avenge. ”t 

Verna’s address was published in the Watchers’ Bulle- 
tin^ and sent out over the world to its readers. 

* * * * 

In two or three weeks after the Russian armv had en- 
tered Palestine, they had taken Jerusalem and overrun the 
whole country, killing many of the Jews, and one-half of 
the people of Jerusalem were carried into captivity. 

The rich Jews had nearly all settled in Jerusalem, and 
being financiers had invested their capital all over the 
world. These the Russians ‘ took into captivity to keep 
as captives until the ransom set upon each man’s head had 
been paid to them. 

“The residue, ”§ the poor people, were left in the city. 
They were not carried into captivity. 

The government of Russia claimed a certain portion of 
4 ill the spoil of the Jews. Then the officers and soldiers 


*Ezek. 38: I. 


tEzek. 38: 18 23. 


$Ez. 38: 18-23. 


§Zech. 


14: 2. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


SS,’? 


cast lots for the Jews that would be their portion, some 
families being divided up and portioned out by lot. Boys 
were exchanged by the Russian soldiers for women that 
had been cast out of Turkish harems, and many of the 
Jewish women that fell by lot to the soldiers were rav- 
ished by them, and then sold for money or wine or some 
.article of merchandise.^ 

Russia in league with Islam against any people means 
the most awful horrors of warfare to the conquered peo- 
ple, and this time proved no exception to the character of 
the Infidel Turk. 

And the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and 
the women ravished, and half of the city shall go into 

captivity.”! 

No such diabolical work could come from any other 
people or in any other way in this age. 

Judah’s fondest hopes of many generations are now 
gone, seemingly forever. Carried away as captives, sep- 
arated again, and filled with sorrow and untold anguish, 
their earthly home and portion faded like a midnight 
dream, and they awake to find themselves in the horrors 
of the darkest dungeons, kept by the cruelest of men. 
They have not yet found a sure dwelling place, they have 
not yet seen their King. 

Deep in trouble as the nations had already been brought 
by years of continual wars, yet there was at last a grim 
determination on the part of the stubborn Anglo-Saxon, 
the headstrong German and the unbending Scotch races 
throughout the world to put down such robbery and out- 
rage. 

Britain, the United States and Germany had fostered 
this return of the Jews to Palestine, many of the Jews 
who had returned being citizens of these three great 
nations. 

*Joel 3: 1-3. 


tZech. 14: 2. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


With one accord they joined hands, and in their might 
marched to the rescue of their enslaved countrymen, to put 
forever under foot the greed of Russia, and the “ unspeak- 
able Turk'’ and his work of hell. 

The most tremendous preparations were made by this 
people — the House of Israel— to help their brethren — the 
House ot Judah. And liberally did the Jews who had 
not returned lend money to these nations to carry on this 
struggle, many of them enlisting in the armies of the dif- 
ferent nations.* 

Plainly these people see that with the spoil of the Jews 
in their possession and the overland route to India open 
and held by the Russians, a close and hard-fought battle 
must be fought for very existence. 

Russia and her troops must be stopped at Jerusalem, or 
Israel must forever give up the struggle between the two 
races. 

In the great Russian people, the descendants of Japheth, 
we see to-day the fulfillment of a prophecy uttered four 
thousand two hundred and fifty years ago. The words of 
Noah, “ God shall enlarge Japheth,” have never been ver- 
ified as they have been in the last decade, by the aggres- 
sive onward movement of this mighty people. In the 
prophecies of the “budding and blossoming of Israel and 
the filling of the earth with fruit” (increase of posterity) 
and the enlargement of Japheth,” we have a clear identi- 
fication of the two great nations or peoples which shall con- 
tend for the supremacy in the fearful struggle of the “ lat- 
ter days.” 

This conclusion- might be drawn from that story told in 
a far-off age, of these two peoples, even if we did not have 
them again named Gog and Magog, and Israel in this the 
last mighty conflict of the earth. And so we read : 

“Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by 

*Zech. 14: 14. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


3S5 


my servants the prophets of Israel, which have prophe- 
sied in those days many years that I would bring thee 
against them.?”* 

The Teutons are Israel and the Russians are Japheth. 
For many years previous to reaching this climax all peo- 
ple and all nations of the earth had chosen sides with 
either one or the other of these nations. A line had been 
drawn, on either side of which the nations would now ar- 
range themselves. 

This struggle was more than a conflict between races. 
In it was also the fiercer fight of opposing religions. It is 
the Greek, the Roman Catholic and the Mohammedan re- 
ligions against the Christian. 

On the side of Russia all the countries embraced in 
these three religions arranged themselves, and all those 
who were nominal Christians gathered to oppose them 
from the other siue of the line. 

This gathering of all nations of the earth into Palestine 
and before Jerusalem was plainly foretold in Scripture in 
eight diflerent places. We give but part of these Scrip- 
tures : 

“ For behold in those days and in that time, when I 
shall bring again the captivity of the Jews and Jerusalem, 
I will also gather together all nations and bring them into 
the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them 
there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom 
they have scattered among the nations, and parted my 
land.”t 

“ For I will gather together all nations against (before) 
Jerusalem, to battle. 

“ For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, 
which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the 
w'hole world to gather them to the battle of that great day 
of God Almighty. Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is 

*Ezek. 38: 17. tJoel 3: 1-2. fZech. 14: 2. 

26 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF' GOG AND MAGOG. 


he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk 
naked and they see his shame. And he gathered them to- 
gether in a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armaged- 
don — Hill of fruits (Mount of Olives.) 

At no time in all the past history of the world have all 
the nations been gathered together in one place for any 
purpose. But the Great Commander, the Lord God of 
Hosts, sends out His proclamation : 

“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; prepare war; 
wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw 
near ; let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into 
swords, and your pruning hooks into spears ; let the weak 
say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye 
heathen and gather yourselves together round about : 
thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. 
Let the heathen be wakened and come up to the valley of 
Jehoshaphat: for there will I set to judge all the people 
round about. ’’f 

No such proclamation was ever made before. Only one 
Commander-in-Cbief ever had such authority. It is not 
the time in the world’s history which men have talked 
about so often, when men shall “beat their swords into 
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks : nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more.” The ploughshares and pruning 
hooks must first be made into other instruments before 
that time of peace is ushered in, that the power of man 
and devil may be demonstrated to its utmost limit. The 
evils of such widespread commotion and call to arms can 
be but faintly portrayed by any pen. The Christian 
world was not prepared for the coming of such a terrible 
spectacle. 

Russia stirred up all the nations over whom she had an 
influence in opposition to Britain, America and those al- 


*Rev. i6: 14-16 and Isa. 66: 18. 


tJoel 3: 9-12. 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


387 


lied with them, and there came into the land of Palestine 
near Jerusalem, such a gathering of the nations of the 
earth as never took place before. 

Before these armies could reach Jerusalem the fleets of 
the Teutonic nations had to fight their way through the 
fleets of Russia, France, Austria and the other allies of 
Russia. 

At last every battle ship, cruiser, gun-boat, torpedo 
boat and torpedo boat destroyers were taken from 'every 
dock in the world and made ready for action, and concen- 
trated in and around the Mediterranean Sea. 

If the marines and soldiers on all these ships could be 
counted, there would be at least half a million men aboard 
of them. There could be but one issue of the conflict at 
sea. The superior number and splendid manoeuvring of 
the ships, especially of the American ships, decided the 
battle that had raged unceasingly for three days and 
nights, outside of the Straits of Gibraltar, in favor of the 
Teutons. 

The ceaseless roar of many hundreds of cannon was as 
if heaven’s artillery had been brought into action, in 
which a hundred thunder storms were all gathered into 
one place, and were hurling their bolts at the gathered 
ships. 

The victorious fleet of the Teutons passed through the 
straits into the Mediterranean. The Russians and their 
allies made another desperate stand, to keep the Teutons 
from landing on the shores of Palestine. They had so ar- 
ranged their ships that the land batteries fired over their 
own ships into those of the enemy. 

. Many millions of dollars went to the bottom of the 
sea. Many brave lives were lost, and their bodies 
went down with their ships, never to rise again until they 
are called to stand before the Great White Throne. 

Even with the aid of the shore batteries, the unceasing 


388 THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 

boom, boom of the guns of those great battleships of the 
invading army gradually drove the ships of Gog and 
Magog to their doom, and also silenced the shore bat- 
teries. 

To gain a landing and hold it was now the aim of the 
leaders. This was effected after one of the most terrible 
fusilades of shots and shells that ever left the guns of an 
invading fleet. But the Teutons had paid dearly for their 
victory, nearly one-half of their ships being either dis- 
abled or sunk. It was a long, stiff fight from the sea to 
Jerusalem. Every foot of the ground was contested by 
the followers of Gog and Magog against the slow but sure 
advance of the Israelites and their allies. 

The decisive blow struck at their fleets and this steady 
advance of the armies of the same victorious host, resounded 
through the land of Magog and among her allies, and in 
fact over all the world, but no people took a greater inter- 
est in those events — the gathering of the nations — than did 
the Mohammedan world. Their leaders told them what 
it might mean in the near future, the return of Moham- 
med, their prophet and the founder of the Koran. Short- 
ly after the infidels took Palestine, they built the mosque 
of Omar on the site of Solomon’s temple ; and the Golden 
Gate in the great wall of the city near the mosque they 
closed up with mason work at the time the mosque was 
finished. This gate, they said, would never be opened 
until their Great Prophet and leader came back to earth to 
rule the world. 

When he comes back, they say he will burst open this - 
gate, and stand upon the flat rock just outside of the wall 
of Jerusalem, and from there he will judge the nations 
gathered round about Jerusalem, previous to his being 
crowned king over all the earth. 

This event is looked for by every intelligent Mohamme- 
dan in the world with the most intense interest. All this 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG. 


389 


teaching was taken from the Bible by Mohammed, where it 
teaches of the second coming of Christ, and his judging 
the nations gathered before Jerusalem.* 

There was beginning to be a deep unrest among the 
175,060,000 people throughout the Mohammedan world’ 
as they watched the course of these stirring events. They 
felt it was only a matter of a few months when they would 
be called upon to assemble as a people, and with sword in 
hand, biing the world to the feet of Mohammed. 

For the present they would fight with Magog and beat 
down the adherents of the cross. They considered that 
every soldier killed, whether of Magog or Teutons to be 
one less of their natural enemies. Gog and Magog were 
sending their agents all over the Mohammedan world. 
From Egypt and the Soudan, Arabia, Persia, Afghanis- 
tan, Beloochistan, even from the northern parts of China 
they were being gathered and brought to take part in the 
fray. Unknown to themselves they were gathering this 
savage host that would soon turn against themselves. 

The 500,000 Russian soldiers that had been gathered on 
the borders of Turkey, were now before Jerusalem, and 
still other levies of Gog were being made, and were hur- 
rying to the scene of action. 

Austria, Italy, Spain and most of the Spanish South 
American Republics and Mexico were all gathering every 
available regiment and sending them to Jerusalem. 

The House of Israel knew of all this host that they 
would have to face when they had forced their way 
to Jerusalem. If they could not gather a sufficient army 
to overcome them at that place, they knew what it meant 
to them and to the whole world. 

Britain’s forces were gathering from all her vast domin- 
ions. Sykhs, Sepoys and Bengals from India ; blacks 
from Africa ; Anglo-Saxons and Scotchmen from South 


*Isa. 66: 18. 


390 


THE MIGHTY HOST OF GOG AND MAGOG 


Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and from every 
every other colony of the empire were hastening by land 
and sea to the great conflict. The United States, Ger- 
many, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Belgium 
and Switzerland, and every other semi-protestant country 
were sending every available man to take part in the 
world’s struggle. 



CHAPTER VI. 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED, AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 

Although the outcome of the gathering of the nations 
before Jerusalem, for the WORLD’S LAST CONFLICT, 
on the LAST BATTLE FIELD OF EARTH, is of the 
most vital importance and interest to every reader, yet we 
must return to the subjects of our story. 

The fearful conditions that existed among the nations 
meant a great change for every community and every in- 
dividual, whether bad or good. 

At no time in the history of the world have the differ- 
ent nationalities been so scattered over all the world, and 
these have also carried their national and religious preju- 
dices along with them. 

As we said before, this greatest of conflicts that was 
hastening to a final issue before Jerusalem was more than 
a race or a national war; it was a religious war, with all 
the bitterness of centuries of opposing views, still more 
intensified by the fact that no one religion had been com- 
pletely successful in bringing satisfaction or comfort to any 
nation, as a whole. All were looking for satisfaction in 
this present life from the religious doctrines and teachings 
of their religion. 

This war of the nations and religions had also settled 
down within the cities and towns over the world, with all 
the intensity of religious factions at war, made still more 
bitter by being neighbors, and each having grievances 
against the other, whether fancied or real. 


392 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


In all the past history of the Church the ones who lived 
nearest to God, who knew His will and strove to obey it, 
have always had many enemies. Not so much because 
they set their faces against iniquity to rebuke it on every 
occasion, but because they would not take part and join 
with the wrongdoers in their evil practices. 

No evil doers can quiet the voice of their consciences 
when they know that any person is living near them who 
follows righteousness and truth, and whom they know 
had knowledge of their evil deeds. The better spirits are 
a constant rebuke to them, and therefore the evil-doers are 
always the ones that begin the trouble. 

The Waldenses, the Huguenots and the Covenanters 
would all have been satisfied to train their families and 
the ones that came to them seeking the truth in the ways 
of their belief ; all others might live in the teachings in 
which they were brought up. But the followers of the 
enemy of souls would not suffer them to live in peace. 
They tried to make them give up their own religion and 
practices, and believe what they believed, and do what 
they did. 

There have been many thousands.of individuals, as well 
as these sects that have been cited, that would have been 
glad to live peaceable, quiet lives if they had been left to 
themselves, but evil-doers would not let them be at peace 
and rest. 

Zion’s Watchers had striven to obey the command : 
“ As much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men.”* 

They would not join those who were deep in iniquity, 
and therefore they were persecuted. The prophecy : 
“ And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake,”j- 
had come true in the experience of the Watchers. 

Owing to the dreadful state of the nations and the polit- 
ical world, “ the cry of the shepherds and a howling of 


*Rom. 12: 18. 


tLuke 21: 17. 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 393 

the principal of the flocks,” was heard, “ for (more) pas- 
ture.”* 

The people who would have made sacrifices to sustain 
the Church had been driven out of it because they had op- 
posed the covetous practices, and "‘the form of godliness”! 
that was manifested by the “ shepherds” of the Church ; 
while those who had not the root of the matter in them, 
and who were in the Church for the honors they might re- 
ceive from it, as soon as the thought came to them that 
they might need the money for themselves that they were 
giving to the Church because of the terrible state of the 
world, their selfish natures were shown, for they ceased 
to pay to the Church any more money. 

Then the “ shepherds,” measuring the character of the 
ones they had “ dispersed”! by themselves, and having a 
hatred fpr them because they had done them an injustice 
in driving them out of the Church, supposed that each 
one of the di'^persed ones was working against them 
among the worldly ones who for a time had supported 
them. This hatred soon became bitter persecution. 

The more the shepherds went astray the more they 
hated the watching righteous ones, because their con- 
sciences plainly told them they were in the wrong, and 
the others were in the right. 

There were no people in the world who were hated and 
persecuted for the above reasons as much as those who 
were watching for His coming. Men and women who 
are born free, when persecuted for righteousness’ sake, be- 
come bold and fearless, because of the consciousness of 
right within them. 

So when they were “brought into the synagogues ”§ 
(the churches), and charged with all sorts of misdemean- 
ors, they fearlessly gave an answer of the “ blessed hope 
within them,” the Lord having fulfilled His promise to 


*Jer. 25: 36. 


t2 Tim. 3; 5. 


JJer, 25: 34. 


§Luke 21: 12. 


394 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


them : “ I will give you mouth and wisdom which all 
your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist.”* 

The giving forth of this wisdom (which was the in- 
spiration of God) only incensed the “shepherds” the 
more, who aspired to be the leaders in all the advanced 
thoughts of all theology of the present or the future. 

The way that the Watchers taught of restoring to earth 
all things lost by the fall, would take all their honor from 
them as well as their rich pastures, and the very thought 
of this raised their ire to the highest pitch, which grew 
day by day, as the spoiling of their pastures went on. 

This was taking the kingdom from them that they had 
raised up for themselves, and making them as other men. 

Thousands of Watchers in every part of the world were 
tried before the Church and the civil courts, and cast “into 
prison”-!- these very ones who had taken vows to uphold 
the proclamation of heaven : “ Peace on earth and good- 
will to men.” They were persecuted and imprisoned for 
righteousness’ sake. 

Verna was one of the very first to feel this persecution. 
The minister who had succeeded the R.ev. Dr. Houston 
was still living, and pastor of the Church of which Verna 
had been a member, and as was shown when he came into 
this new charge, he sought to enter into the prejudices of 
his predecessor. 

His actions toward Verna had been very unlike a 
Christian or a gentleman, and when she was driven out 
by him her large circle of friends and relations, as might 
be expected, sympathized with her. 

Some of them remonstrated with him, only to hear still 
more bitter and angry words. This disturbance grew 
until twenty families finally left the Church. Verna took 
no part in it, further than to tell the story in all truthful- 
ness, in defence of herself. 


•Luke 2i: 15. 


tLuke 21: 12. 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 


395 


The minister, throughout the controversy, w^hich lasted 
for several years, lorded over every one, until the church 
was almost empty. Then in much bitterness he sought 
to punish Verna, who he said was the first cause of 
it all, but the Great Judge had no fault to find with that 
sweet and true spirit. Although she had never told any- 
thing but the truth, it cut so deep that he entered a suit in 
the civil courts against her for libel. 

When the case came up for trial Verna told what ac- 
tion he had taken towards her so many years before, and 
how she had been from home for three years, and that it 
was his own acts at the beginning, and the same high- 
handed, domineering ways having been carried on by him 
all these years, that had caused ail his trouble. 

She had many witnesses to prove every word she said. 

Then the minister said in a sneering manner to the 
Judge: 

“This lady you see before you is one of those who are 
striving to belittle the Church and its work, who say that 
the preaching of the Gospel will never evangelize the 
world, that the Church has gone astray, and that the pres- 
ent state of the Church and the world is because the min- 
isters as the leaders are growing selfish and covetous ; that 
the Church and the world are drifting away from 
righteousness as the leaders drift, setting forth that God’s 
judgments will soon come upon the world for the wicked- 
ness that prevails. They assert that this is the end of the 
Gospel age and that Christ is coming back to earth to 
reign as King, because the Church has proved a failure. 
This opposition, this teaching, is driving people away 
from my Church.” 

“Miss Rodell, what have you to say in answer to these 
charges.?” asked the Judge. 

Verna’s answer was a surprise to all present : 

“ I am one of those who have said all these things that 


396 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


we are char<(ed with, but we are not in any way responsi- 
ble for the empty churches. If men become thirsty and 
hungry in soul they will go to the churches, expecting to 
be filled ; but if they come away as hungry and as thirsty 
as before they went, they are not likely to return very 
often. So Christ says : ‘ For wheresoever the carcase is 
there will the eagles be gathered together.’* If men find 
food for their souls within the Church, they will return to 
be filled again and again. All these things that we see 
abroad in the world, we are told in prophecy would come 
to pass in these ‘the latter days.’f We are but giving these 
prophecies to those who are seeking for light. ‘ For the 
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 

We know that that time of God’s terrible judgments 
coming upon the world is near, because of this very per- 
secution, for we read : ‘ But before all these they shall lay 
hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the 
synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings 
and rulers for my name’s sake. And ye shall be betrayed 
both by parents, and brethren and kinsfolks, and friends, 
and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And 
ye shall be hated of all men, for my name’s sake.’’§ 

We are told that when this persecution comes it will 
be the ‘ testimony’ll to us of His near approach.” 

Then Verna turned around and looked the minister full 
in the face, as she said : 

‘‘ Christ testified to the disciples of John as proof that 
He was the Messiah, that ‘ the poor have the Gospel 
preached to them.’^ Why is it that you do not follow 
Hif» example and preach the Gospel to the poor.^ Why is 
it that you and so many of your class seek only the well- 
to-do and rich of society.? Why is it that where suffering 
and lost souls are, you do as the priest and the Levite did 

*Math. 24: 28. fz Tim. 3: 1-5. tRev. 19; io.§ 

§Luke2i: 12-16-17. llLuke2i: 13. ITMath. ii: 5. 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 


397 


— pass by on the other side, to where the rich are? You 
will not give an answer now, but ^ou will have to an- 
swer at the Day of Judgment. 

“ No man who reads the Word of God can be at a loss 
to know what is his duty to his fellows; for God testifies 
to the world in plain words : ‘ Is not this the fast that I 
have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo 
the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and 
that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to 
the hungry, and bring the poor, that are cast out, to thy 
house? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him ; 
and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh.’* 

“Again, we are told : ‘ Ye shall know them by their 
fruits.’ Your actions show that you are far more anxious 
to get your salary of $2,500 a year than to get either the 
souls of the poor or the rich saved. There are many 
worthy families within the bounds of your church that are 
larger than yours; these would think themselves well oft' 
if they had one-fifth of your salary to live on ; and you 
have a parsonage free in addition to your salary. 

“ This forsaking of the poor and following after the rich 
has brought the standard of the cross down so low that it 
is making use of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the 
Church for honors and money. 

“ This makes the poor, the rich and the preacher alike 
desolate of eternal life, and is in very truth the ‘ abomina- 
tion of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,’! 
the excellency of richness being set up as the standard of 
membership within the Church.” 

The Judge in ordinary cases would have interrupted a 
speaker before they had said as much; but Verna spoke 
so fast and her reprimand was so unusual that before he 
recovered from his surprise she had said all she wished to 
say. 

*Isa. 58: 6-7. tMalh. 24: 15. 


39S 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


• Words would fail to describe the wrath of the preacher 
at Verna’s scathing words. He was far too angry to find 
utterance for his thought in words. - The officials of the 
Cnurch at this time were men of his own choice and were 
but tools for him. They testified that they had always 
found their minister affable and courteous to every one. 

The truth was well understood by those present, and, as 
the minister might have known, such a put-up, one-sided 
defense, only made his guilt appear the greater. His 
pride had risen to such a pitch because of having several 
college degrees and diplomas, that he thought he had com- 
passed all knowledge and therefore could make people be- 
lieve what he chose. 

He did not know that there were many people who had 
never been inside of a college or even sat in a school- 
house to learn a lesson, who had knowledge of the whole 
circumstance and measured him up in his littleness. Act- 
ing on that knowledge they quietly left him ; some to go 
to another church, and some to drift away, but all thor- 
oiighly disgusted with the man. 

There was not any case made out against Verna, but 
the officers of the court were known to be men who would 
do the bidding of the side that paid the largest price. 

A few dollars were paid to the Judge and others by the 
minister, to impose $5,000 damages on Verna for defama- 
tion of his character, and in default of payment she was 
to be imprisoned. 

Verna did not have the money, and if she had had mil- 
lions she would never pay anything so unjust. Her cheer- 
ful and happy disposition did not leave her when this new' 
trial came to her. It was plain to her that the time of her 
Lord’s coming was now very near, because the nations 
were gathered “ before Jerusalem,” and “ the distress and 
perplexity of the nations was never so great as now; 


*Luke 21: 25. 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 


399 


and now this persecution of the watching ones,* the final 
chapter in their history immediately preceding the calam- 
ities that come upon all the earth before the angel shall 
sound the trumpet as the herald of His approach ! 

When the true situation dawned upon Verna she felt 
that her imprisonment was no evil omen to her, but, on 
the contrary, it should be considered by her as a proof of 
having been faithful in discharging the work that God had 
given her to do. If she had not been faithful she would 
not be thus persecuted. Now that she was to be impris- 
oned this persecution had “ turned to her for a testimony ’’f 
of her faithfulness. 

It was a great satisfaction to her, but what would she 
do when shut within the walls of the prison? She would 
have none of her friends to speak to. 

“ Will you pay the fine. Miss Rodell,” the Judge asked. 

“ I cannot, and I would not if I could,” Verna an- 
swered. 

“■ You are aware of what the alternative is, are you 
not?” 

She bowed her head in answer to this question. 

“Are you prepared to go along with this officer?” 
pointing to a policeman nearby. 

“ I am,” and she stepped toward the man. 

“All r-right ! ” was answered in the brogue of the 
officer. 

As Verna took her place in the patrol wagon beside the 
officer, there were some wet eyes even among those who 
were against her, for they all knew she was innocent. 

Hard indeed was the heart that could look upon that 
face, now illumined with the light of heaven, and keep 
the tears from flowing! 

An artist standing by when she was stepping into the 
wagon with the officer, said : 


*Luke 2i: 12. 


tLuke 21; 13. 


400 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


“ If I could paint those two forms, with the expressions 
on the faces as they now look, my name would become 
immortalized and my fortune made.” 

“ What name would you give it?” was asked. 

“ ‘ For righteousness’ sake.’ That woman is one of 
whom the world is not worthy,” he answered. 

Verna was soon at the door of the prison, and with lit- 
tle ceremony was taken to her cell. 

Two doors, a cot, a stool, a table and a few books on 
the wall, a window grated over, and four square walls 
comprised her furniture and apartments. When the key 
was turned in the lock she sank into the seat and covered 
her face with her hands. 

She wept bitterly. 

How long would it be before she was free? She asked 
herself: Would she have to stay imprisoned until the 
morning of His coming?* How many months would it 
be? Wh«t would her friends say or do? Would Harvey 
come to her? 

Thus she questioned and wept until she was exhausted 
and fell into a blessed sleep on the cot and forgot all 
trouble for a time. 

She was soon awakened by the door opening and the 
entrance of the warder with her supper. She could not 
cat anything, but had another long cry, and yet she could 
not say why she cried. It was not because God had for- 
saken her. She felt His presence still more dear even in 
the prison, than ever before, if that were possible. She 
had done what she could to advance His Kingdom on 
earth, and had succeeded in taking many a thorn out of 
the pillows of suffering ones, Harvey among the others. 

She could yet hear his “ God bless you, Verna, for 
what you have said and done for me.” She could yet 
feel that warm clasp of his hand and' the grateful, tender 
look of his eye, and it was all sweetness to her. 


*Luke 21 : 12. 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 4OI 

As God had taught her of the wonderful truths in His 
word culminating in the coming of Christ, she had tried 
to be a faithful servant and to give to others “ the meat in 
due season ” for this the close of the Gospel Age. 

As a proof that she had been faithful the evil servant 
had risen up against her and had smitten her by casting 
her into prison.* 

In her inmost soul she could hear her Lord saying to 
her : 

“ Well done, good and faithful servant.'’ This was her 
highest, sweetest comfort ; yet she wept. 

“Ah yes, for the truest gladness 
Is not in ease or mirth; 

It has its home in the heart of God, 

Not in the loves of earth. 

“God’s love is the same forever. 

If the skies are bright or dim; 

And the joy of the morning lasts all day 
When the heart is glad in Him.” 

Reader, you and I love Verna all the better because she 
wept, and we know that her good angel, her ministering 
spirit, is in sympathy with her in all her sufferings, and 
wept with her. 

Verna’s thoughts traveled very fast; she thought of the 
imprisoned apostles, the latter day martyrs of the past, 
and now the Watchers, who she knew were surrounded 
with enemies, who had carried their prejudices and hatred 
so far as to put them in prison all over the world. Many 
of them she knew were her companions in tribulation. 

For a few minutes her thoughts took another turn. 

What about the books that the recording angels were 
writing against the persecutors. If they should still be- 
living when our Great King comes, and He should open 
their books, what weeping there would be for them, but 
their tears would be tears of anguish. 


*Math. 24: 45-49. 
27 


403 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


Then her almost Divine spirit caused fresh tears to flow 
out of true sympathy for the anguish of soul that she 
knew would come to them in the near future. This an- 
guish she would gladly avert, even to the taking of as 
much as she could bear in her own person. 

The reader has noticed before this that we have nut 
called the minister that persecuted Verna by any name. 

The Divine Historian was instructed not to give the two 
daughters of Lot any name, and it is well that the world 
does not know them by any name ; so we thought it would 
be best not to give this man any name, but he had an ex- 
istence and a name, and when the persecution came there 
were very many like him. 

Of him, Verna said : “ He is my bitter enemy and has 
shut me in here, but I do not hate him ; my heart goes out 
to him so much, that if I could I would bear his punish- 
ment for him.” A merited punishment, she thought, 
must be so much harder to bear than an unmerited one. 

Then she earnestly prayed for him, that his heart might 
be touched, his sins forgiven, and his soul saved from* the 
wrath to come. 

The days of Verna’s imprisonment grew into weeks, 
and none of her friends came to see her. She did not 
know that they had called and been refused admittance. 

All this time Verna had sweet fellowship with God ; by 
day and by night she sang praises to him, and prayed for 
others who were in trouble. Her persecutor had thought 
that by shutting her in so close, some of her friends would 
come forward and pay part of the fine. 

Harvey was away from the city when Verna was im- 
prisoned, and did not get back until four weeks after- 
wards. When he was told of her being shut up in prison, 
he determined to rescue her, even if it brought imprison- 
ment and death to himself. 

Full well he knew that this persecution ought to be 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 403 

hailed with gladness, because it was a sign that His com- 
ing was near at hand. But,” he asked himself, “ how 
can I be happy without knowing where Verna is, or what 
she is suffering ? ” 

He confided his purpose to Mr. Randell and some 
others, who promised to do what they could to help him. 
But in what part of the prison was she to be found? He 
knew that the officers of the prison could not be ap- 
proached or trusted. Then what was he to do? 

There was One who knew where Verna was, who was 
watching over her day and night. One that could tell him 
just what room she was in. 

Harvey prayed very earnestly to God to help him. Be- 
lieving that his prayer would be answered, he started for 
the prison in the early evening. He believed that if God 
would in His mercy help him to rescue Verna He would 
see to it that she was placed in a room where it would be 
possible for him to effect her rescue. 

The prison was a four-story brick building. The first 
two floors extended the whole length of the building. 
The top stories were in two parts. A flat roof was placed 
over the two lower stories in the center of the building to 
give light to the rooms in the third and fourth stories near 
the middle of the structure. 

As Harvey walked around the building he was quick to 
notice this, and that if Verna were in one of the rooms 
looking out over this flat roof, a way could be found to 
get her away from the prison. 

As he walked backward and forward he noticed that the 
back yard of the prison was quite deserted at this time of 
the evening, as the men who were employed about the 
building had ceased work for the day and were most of 
them in the city. 

Trusting to the Lord to help him he found an entrance 
to this yard. 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


404 

Earnestly he prayed : “ Lord show me in which win- 
dow Verna is.” 

Something said to him : ‘‘ The second window in the 
third story to the right, over the flat roof.” 

Having full faith that his prayers were answered he 
came as near in front of this window as possible, and 
stood watching, expecting to see Verna look out through 
the bars. 

Softly he repeated the answer to a call for help that was 
used by the Watchers; he had only repeated it the third 
time when he saw the face he was watching for. Then 
he listened for the Watchers’ call for help. Softly the 
words came down to him in the voice he knew so well, 
which made his heart throb for joy. He then made her 
understand by signs that he would come again the next 
night, and went away. 

Harvey had carefully measured the height of the flat 
roof with his eye, and he knew that he could make a cord 
ladder wi’th hooks attached that would grip the roof so 
that the ladder would hang to the ground. He had no- 
ticed a high fence that ended against the prison wall. By 
climbing this fence he knew that he could, with the aid of 
his walking-stick, place the hooks of the ladder into the 
gutter of the flat roof. 

To make this ladder was his task for the next day, and 
also to get a saw with which to cut the bars of iron that 
guarded the window. He must speak to Verna and he 
was prepared to run any risk to make her free. 

He had made arrangements with Mr. Randell to have a 
carriage on the cross street near by at a certain hour, to 

take Verna to the town of B for a few days, and then to 

bring her back to his own house, and keep her there for a 
time: 

“ If you get her into the coach,” said Mr. Randell, “ I 
will see to it that she is all right.” 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 


405 


The next evening Harvey went to the prison to make 
the attempt to free Verna, He went into the yard of the 
prison and after remaining quiet for a time, climbed the 
fence and made his ladder fast to the roof. Easily then he 
climbed to the top and on the roof, drawing the ladder 
after him. 

Verna had her window open and with a throbbing 
heart saw everything that Harvey did. He crept noise- 
lessly to the window where Verna was, and they clasped 
hands through the bars. t 

In whispers he told her what he intended to do, and 
what she was to do. But she pleaded with him not to try 
to liberate her. He would get imprisoned as well, she 
said. He told her that nothing worse could come to him 
than to know that she was imprisoned, v/hile he was free. 
Still holding her hand, he said : 

“ We have nothing to fear. Our enemies can do us no 
harm. His promise to us. His persecuted Watching 
ones, is : ‘ There shall not a hair of your head perish.’* 

Thus reassured, she ceased her pleadings, and he be- 
gan to examine the bars on the window. 

By cutting two of them, he found that Verna could 
■easily climb out with his help. 

Before he began cutting he wrapped a wet cloth around 
the bars to prevent the sound from being heard. He kept 
the saw well covered with oil, and in a short time he had 
cut the bars through and removed them. 

Then he looked at his watch and found that it still 
lacked half an hour of the time when the carriage would 
be waiting at the cross street. He carefully instructed 
Verna how to descend the ladder and how to find her way 
cut of the back yard, and also where the carriage would 
be in waiting. 

He told her he would remain on the roof to keep back 


•Luke 21: 18, 


4o6 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


the guard if they should hear them and attempt to catch 
her ; then, if everything went well, he would also descend 
the ladder and make for freedom. 

“ If you want me to have any rest at all do as I ask 
you. Do not mind what happens to me ; if you get down 
that ladder safe, make for the carriage.” 

Verna promised to do as Harvey asked her to do. Is 
was well that she did or neither of them would have es- 
caped. 

Harvey could see that the carriage was now in waiting, 
and he helped Verna to climb out of the window; this 
was accomplished, and he led her carefully to the place 
where the ladder was, telling her to be brave, and not to 
utter a word or exclamation, no matter what happened. 

Bravely she went through the terrible ordeal. Harvey 
tenderly but firmly helped her to the rope ladder, until 
she had a firm hold with both hands, when she went down 
slowly, step by step, to the ground. She hurried across 
the yard of the prison, scarcely knowing what she did, 
and out into the street. 

Before she stepped into the carriage she turned, as she 
heard shouting over by the prison, and she saw Harvey 
trying to keep a man back, and when he would not leave 
him, she saw Harvey strike him and knock him down ; at 
the same moment two other men ran shouting across the 
roof towards Harvey. Then her eyes closed in a faint. 

Mr. Randell and his driver had to lift her bodily into 
the carriage and drive away. Restoratives were applied 
that brought her to, but she went back again into a faint, 
from which she slowly recovered consciousness. 

She could think of nothing but that struggle and its 
awful outcome for Harvey ; and it had all come to him in 
trying to save her. 

Why had she consented, she asked herself. But she 
had not ; he had really done it in spite of her, and no pun- 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 


407 


ishment would ever make him repent, if only she were 
safely taken out and kept hidden. 

Mr. Randell carried out his part of the agreement, and 
after a few days Verna was taken to his home and given 
rooms, where she had every comfort, and would have 
been happy had not this one trouble weighed so heavily 
upon her. 

What would they do with Harvey.? Her faith was 
strong that his enemies would not be allowed to harm him, 
and yet no mortal in such a trial could help being in deep 
agony. Surely God would give an answer to such earnest, 
unceasing prayers as hers. 

When Harvey was assisting Verna out of the window, 
a woman from the other side of the flat roof, who had been 
watching him as he cut the bars, called to one of the 
guards who was passing her door (thinking she would 
gain favors in that way) that a woman was escaping from 
a window on the other side of the roof. The guard ran 
as quickly as he could to the place, and called to the two 
others who followed as he went. 

The first guard had seen Verna running and was deter- 
mined to go after her, thinking that the two men could 
take care of Harvey. But Harvey was just as determined 
that he should not follow Verna, so when he came oppo- 
site him, he struck him and knocked him down. 

Then the other two guards came up and covered Har- 
vey with their revolvers, saying, “ Throw up your hands.’’ 

“ I submit,” said Harvey, as he raised his hands. 

“ It is well you do,” said one of the men with a terri- 
ble oath. 

The man whom Harvey had knocked down, happened 
to be one of the keepers. He rose and said : 

“ You will go into the same room, sir, and begorra ye’ll 
not nade any bars to kape ye in aither. Bring the brace- 
lets,” said he to one of the men. 


4o8 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


These were quickly brought and put on Harvey’s hands, 
and he was marched to the room where Verna had been, 
and a chain was locked through his handcuffs to a heavy 
ring in the wall. 

^ “ Now ye d villain, ye’ll stay there and ye’ll git all 

the bread and water ye can ate.” 

The key was turned and Harvey was alone. 

His prayers had been more than answered. Verna was 
free and with kind friends. He had taken her place and 
was to suffer in her stead. He was to occupy the same 
room that Verna had been confined in, sit in the same 
chair, eat at the same table, sleep in the same cot, and look 
out of the same window, with the pleasing picture ever 
before him, of. Verna running across the yard out onto the 
street and into the carriage to freedom. 

Then, with a heart swelling with rapture, he sent up to 
his God such a song of praise as had never ascended from 
aiiy other person living on the earth before. No matter 
what suffering he might have to endure, with all this 
present material, and this inward triumph over enemies, 
he would have joy. 

“ Verna stayed four weeks in these walls and came out 
alive, and so will I, even if my hands are shackled,” he 
thought. 

The next morning the three men and the superintendent 
of the prison came into Harvey’s cell. The man Harvey 
had struck, said to him : 

“ What’s yer name 

“ I don’t care to give my name at present,” Harvey an- 
swered. 

“Oh, yez don’t, don’t ye! Then mabbe we kin find 
out.” 

Then they proceeded to search Harvey for cards or let- 
ters by which his name could be found, but they discov- 
ered none. 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 


409 

Harvey had prepared himself for just such an emergen- 
cy as this, and had carefully removed everything from his 
pockets that would identify him. If he succeeded in res- 
cuing Verna he did not want to bring any more persecu- 
tion to the Watchers than could be avoided. 

“ This man is a professional housebreaker and well up 
in his business,” said the superintendent. 

“ Stand on yer late,” said the keeper. 

When Harvey stood up, the keeper gave him a stinging 
blow on the cheek, and said : 

“ Be jappers. I’ll pay yez back.” 

As he did so, Harvey thought, I’ll give him full satis- 
faction, for that blow I gave him,” and he turned his other 
"cheek to the Irish keeper. 

“ Dye yez want me ter slap yer other chick, too?” 

Yes, I want you to have fujl satisfaction for the blow 
I gave you,” answered he. 

“ Well, take that,” and he struck Harvey again. 

“ I ask you to forgive me for hitting you,” said Harvey. 

Have you got full satisfaction now.” 

“ Well I think I hev, but I’ll see. After ye hev et bread 
and water fer a month I think I’ll be satisfied.” 

As they were turning to go the superintendent said : 

“ Perhaps you’ll have a name for yourself the next time 
we come?” 

“ Oh, I have found his name,” said the keeper, “ He is 
one of those ‘Good Angel Watchers.’ Luk at the imblim 
that he wears*.” 

“ Ah ! he has a right to such a title. Breaker of ‘our 
laws’ would suit him better,” answered the superintend- 
ent. Harvey had not forgotten his emblem, he would not 
remove that under any circumstance. 

The opening that Harvey had made in the window was 
still open, and Harvey hoped and prayed that they would 
leave it open as a constant reminder that by his hands cut- 
ting that opening, Verna had passed through to freedom. 


410 


VERNA IS IMPRISONED 


Harvey had full knowledge of the events that were tak- 
ing place all over the world before he was thus shut in, 
and he knew that at the longest it would not be a great 
while before those prison walls would fall by the command 
of the Great King, and he would be freed to go and meet 
Him as He came to earth. 

After he had been imprisoned for three weeks, the keep- 
er relented enough to take the shackles off-of his hands 
and to replace the bars in the window. 

“ All that there is of earth for me has come to an end,’^ 
mused Harvey one day, as he sat in his cell. “Every 
source of human happiness is denied me, except the con- 
sciousness of having striven hard against great odds to do 
my duty to my God and to my fellow men.” 

But he was mistaken, for the next morning he found a 
small package on the floor that had been pushed in 
•through the open window (for it was summer time). 

What was it.^ Who was it from? 

He opened it and found a short note from Verna, a lead 
pencil and some blank paper. 

“ How my heart aches for you,” the note ran. “ If I 
could I would change with you. Oh, I am so sorry for 
you; you can never know how I pity you. Even if we 
are nearly done with this earth, let me say that I under- 
stand the deep feelings that prompted you to make this sac- 
rifice of yourself for me. 

“ ‘ In your patience possess ye your soul.’ 

“ ‘ There shall not a hair of your head perish.’ 

“ We can now but wait while we watch. ‘ The morn- 
ing cometh to those who look for him.’ 

“ There has been an awful battle raging about Jerusa- 
lem for the lavSt three days and nights, without any decis- 
ive results, so you know what comes next, and that we 
have not long to wait. 

“We learn that there are many thousands of Zion’s 


AND RESCUED BY HARVEY. 


41 1 


Watchers imprisoned all over the world, but they know 
why it all is, and of the glorious event so near at hand. 

“ In your trouble do not forget our own watchword. 

“ Write me fully how you are situated. I have sent you 
paper and pencil by one of our faithful Watchers, who 
will call to-morrow morning when the clock strikes two^ 
and get your answer. 

“ Read these words of Burns’ as the true sentiment of 
my heart : — 


“ ‘The bridegroom may forget the bride 
Was made his wedded wife yestreen; 
The monarch may forget the crown 
That on his head an hour has been; 
The mother may forget the child 

That smiles sae sweetly on her knee, 
But I’ll remember thee, my love. 

And a’ thy kindness unto me.’ 


“The Bridegroom sends this message to you, — ‘I ami 
with you,’ ‘ Abide in me,’ ‘ Behold I come quickly.’ 


“ Yours, 


“ V.” 


This twofold message of sympathy from the earthly and 
the Divine, was a balm to a weary, yet hopeful spirit. 

Harvey had a long letter ready when the messenger 
called for it, and it was Frank Cowper who had the cour- 
age to take this double risk, and comfort these two troubled 
hearts. 


I 


CHAPTER VII. 

ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 

Since the personal story recorded in the last chapter, 
events that concerned the whole world had become his- 
tory. 

Steadily the people of Israel had made their way to Je- 
rusalem, leaving: a strong guard behind them to insure 
communication with the sea. 

Week after week troops were brought before Jerusalem, 
by land and sea, from all lands and nations. People of 
all colors were gathered, so that the Scriptures were ful- 
filled which said : — 

“I will gather all nations, and will bring them down 
into the valley of Jehoshaphat.”* 

“ Countless throngs from countless realms, flocked to 
the work of death.” 

On this battlefield is to be decided whether the compar- 
atively free institutions of the different nations of the Teu- 
tonic race shall be shared by the other peoples and nations, 
or whether the world shall become serfs to the despotic 
rule of the Czar and his ministers. 

Theodore Roosevelt was in his second term of office as 
President of the United States, and as commander-in- 
chief of the American army, at the very commencement 
of the war, had gone with the army to Palestine. The 
questions that confronted the world, and the awful conse- 
quences to a free people, if defeated, caused that man of 

*Joel 3: 2. 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 41'^ 

patriotic impulses to go to the front, so that every soldier 
might know that their highest officer felt that it was his 
duty to take a personal part in the struggle. Wherever 
he was seen on the battlefield, there the battle raged the 
fiercest. His example was soon followed by the Czar of 
Russia, the Emperor of Germany, the President of France 
and numbers of the kings of the various nations.* They 
would stake life itself on the issue of this conflict. 

These two immense hosts were now in the presence of 
each other. They watched each other with the most in- 
tense interest, and the most scrutinizing anxiety by day 
and by night. 

The presence of the rulers on that field showed that 
they were actuated to a still greater degree than the rank 
and file. 

How minutely every part of the preparatory movements 
on the arena was watched by the armies. 

Neither army lacked in tactical skill, modern arms, ha- 
bitual prowess, physical strength or moral courage, and 
more than this, every man felt that the fate of the whole 
world rested on the result. 

The flags of Russia, magnificently decorated, the flags 
of France, Austria, Spain, Italy and the Cresent could be 
seen waving over Jerusalem, and in the valley of Jehosha- 
phat, and on the hills to the east. 

To the west were to be seen the Union Jack, the Stars 
and Stripes, and the flags of Germany, Holland, Den- 
mark, Belgium, Norway and Sweden. 

Looking from the city of Jerusalem to the horizon on 
all sides, the boundary of space between earth and sky, as 
far as the eye could see and even beyond that was a living 
wall of men. 

This was indeed the assembling of all nations of the 
world. Ten million hearts throbbing with passionate im- 

* Rev. 16 : 14. 


414 all nations gathered before JERUSALEM. 

patience to hear the command of “ Forward ! March I 

Behind each of the combatants the whole world with its 
1,600,000,000 inhabitants had ranged themselves, in all 
communities and cities, and were watching the result of 
that mighty contest in the awful struggle for supremacy, 
for victory ; ready to wage war with the winning side 
against the defeated, and to take advantage of the fallen 
side in every way. 

Never were conditions like this in any part of the world 
before. When all nations, kindreds and tongues felt the 
struggle as involving consequences of such vast import- 
ance, of such universal influence, as to take a personal in- 
terest and part in the contest. 

The Czar as the head of the Greek and Catholic 
Church had said to each commanding officer to say to the 
men: ‘‘Fight for your country, your Czar and your 
Church. The eye of your Czar is upon every man, and 
he has promised to reward the bravest of the men and 
officers.” 

On the other side of the horizon was the Emperor of 
Germany, urging his soldiers to fight for their Fatherland 
and their God. The Presidents and Kings, as well as the 
leading Generals, had spoken stirring patriotic words to 
their armies to fight for their homes and their God. 

All along the outposts for many days there were many 
small battles, without any decisive result. 

Breast-works and intrenchments were constructed by 
both armies, and every artifice known to modern warfare 
was carried out by both combatants, making ready to fight 
to the death. 

Each army had at length completed their arrangements 
and an artillery duel commenced along nearly the whole 
line of battle, and continued day and night. The shot 
Rnd shell fell so thick that it seemed as if nothing could 
live through it even if it continued but for a few hours. 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 415 

But the cannon rattled and thundered without any inter- 
mission ; for as fast as the gunners were killed, others 
took their places. Gog and Magog at last brought the 
Cossack and Mohammedan cavalry forward along the 
whole line of battle. 

One million ot their best cavalry, with banners flying, 
rushed across the intervening space between the two 
armies to cut down the infantry and artillery of Israel, 
which had been steadily advancing nearer. They came 
down into the valley of the “shadow of death” while 
their artillery thundered with redoubled vigor over their 
heads, upon the lines of the Israelites. 

The earth trembled under that awful thunder of horses 
feet, but the hearts of the Israelites neither trembled nor 
feared. 

On they came like a “ cloud.”* Many of them were 
cut down by the artillery before they reached the lines of 
Israel. Many battalions of Scotch Greys, and American 
Rough Riders and German horse were sent out here and 
there, if possible to break up the approaching wall of 
horses and men. 

Swift as eagles the Scotch Greys and American Rough 
Riders flew against their enemies, guiding their horses 
with sinews of steel, and within their bosoms hearts ready 
to die for the right. 

On, on, each host galloped to meet the other. The 
meeting caused a great cloud of dust to rise high in the 
sky, like smoke from a great furnace. 

Proudly each host carried their banners before them in 
this mad gallop to conquer. On no battlefield before this 
was seen such a magnificent double cavalry charge. The 
shock of meeting in the valley for the death struggle was 
terrific. The great hosts on either side of the valley for- 
got to fire. The scene was too grand to remember duty. 


*Ezek. 38: 16. 


4 i 6 all nations gathered before JERUSALEM. 

the outcome too momentous to every heart for action, 
when they could not take a part in that single encounter. 

The two great hosts stood idle for a while in fearlul sus- 
pense. In that cavalry charge was the agony of defeat 
for one cause and one people, while it was victory for the 
other. The soldiers who were the coolest must surely 
win, but what can coolness and sinews do agaiijst odds of 
ten to one, backed by religious frenzy? 

Everywhere that the Rough Riders and Scotch Greys 
met the Russian and Mohammedan cavalry a gap was cut 
out of this wall, as if the ground had opened and swal- 
lowed them up. They cut down everything in front of 
them, but only for a time, for as they cut their way on- 
ward, it was only to meet horde after horde still rushing 
on across the valley, like a flight of locusts. 

These few devoted ones seemed to have charmed lives, 
yet they wearied in slaying their enemies. 

The front ranks of both armies went down at the first 
shock, still the others recoiled not. Men that dared to 
plunge into that awful ocean of war had the true courage 
of manhood. 

Magog thought that by sheer force of numbers., forced 
forward without any thought of the carnage, they could 
sweep down everything before them. But that mad rush 
of Magog came up against the infantry of Israel as if they 
had been a zone of ice. 

The boom of cannon, the discharge of rifles that had 
now started again, the burr-r, burr-r of rapid fire and gat- 
ling guns, the clash of swords and endless shouting were 
everywhere. 

Nothing could be seen or heard in that landscape but a 
carnival of “ Death and Hell.”* 

As fast as the hosts met in this dreadful shock of battle 
and were annihilated, others from that vast landscape of 

*Rev, 6: 8; Joel 3: 14, 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 417 

men rushed madly forward from the east and the west to 
g'ive death to others, or die. 

The battle increased as though the gold of a thousand 
worlds was in that valley and near at hand, and was to be 
the prize of the victors. Aye, more : It was as if the 
evil passions and religious prejudices nourished and kept 
warm for a hundred generations were brought to bear to 
give strength to a deathless hate and a desire to kill. 

Thus the battle raged for days and weeks. 

Would men and devils never weary or sicken at des- 
troying their brothers ? Would this hate grow thus ac- 
tively engaged in butchery, or would thoughts of mercy 
come to the frenzied hearts of men ; would no change 
come to the undying lust for desolation, destruction and 
death ? 

A change would indeed come to the hearts of men, and 
would be brought about by a mightier sword in battle than 
any that man could wield. 

Magog's millions felt sure of victory over Great Britain, 
the United States, Germany and their allies, because of 
the mighty hosts of fierce warriors that came with her,* 
who so outnumbered those of Israel. But in this Magog 
was sadly mistaken, for the Lord had something to say 
about that battlefield. “ Therefore son of man, prophesy 
and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God ; In that day 
when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not 
know it?” “For the Lord their God shall defend 
them.” 

The charge of the Russian cavalry, who came “ like a 
cloud, ”t did not make the hearts of the Anglo-Saxons 
or Germans afraid, whether born in Great Britain, 
the United States, Canada, Australia, or in any part of 
the world. They have the same feeling for the op- 
pressed ; they have the same undaunted courage to act for 

*Ezek. 38: 6. tEzek. 38: 9-16. 

28 


4 i 8 all nations gathered before Jerusalem. 

the right against the wrong. “ And they of Ephraim 
shall be as a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as 
through wine.”* 

In that day Englishmen, Americans, Canadians, — 
Anglo-Saxons from all parts of the world, shall be as 
mighty men. 

The Lord has a word of prophecy, of a wonderful na- 
ture, for the house of David, who has been identified as 
belonging to or within the Scottish race. “ In that day 
shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem : and 
he that is feeble among them in that day shall be as David : 
and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of 
the Lord before them.”t 

This is a plain identification that of this people shall 
come the leaders of Israel in that day of the last great 
battlefield of earth. “And the house of David shall be 
as God.” This statement seems almost profanity, yet it 
was the Lord who wrote it. We think of the record of 
some of the Scottish race, as the best soldiers and Gen- 
erals the world has ever seen, of a Wallace, a Bruce, a 
Macdonald who led Napoleon’s army across the Alps, of 
Grant and many others. Memory recalls Napoleon’s 
words at Waterloo: “Those terrible Scotch Greys, 
will nothing turn them,?” and Sir Collin Camp- 
bell’s words as he led the charge up the heights 
of Alma : “ We’ll hae rane but highland bonnets here;” 
the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, the Relief 
of Lucknow, and many other stirring deeds of valor, 
which they have performed and which are recorded in 
history. The mercenaries of Russia on that battlefield 
found foes in the freeman of the Anglo-Saxon and the 
Scotch races, such as they had never met before. Were 
the emotions of his soul summed up, each man would be 
a host in himself. The deeds of valor that astonished the 

*Zech. lo: 7. tSee “ Mighty Conflict of the Ages,” p, 274. 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 419 

world on that battlefield were not the first in their history. 
Their training which had been going on for many years, 
the free life they had led in the desolate heritages, had 
made them intelligent, bold men.* 

The rough and ready games played in colleges and 
■elsewhere has helped to bring them up to the standard 
named by God, “ mighty men of Ephraim.” 

For many generations the mountain training of the 
Scotch previous to their free life in the “ desolate her- 
itages,” and in other parts of the world, was a first lesson 
in warfare and has brought them to a still higher standard 
as The angel of the Lord before them.” 

“It was the pipe of the Highlanders, 

And now they played ‘ Auld Lang Syne.’ 

It came to our men like the voice of God, 

And they shouted along the line.” 

Up to this time man has been the great actor in the field 
of carnage. The Lord has viewed the work of Gog and 
Magog in laying waste Jerusalem, carrying His people, 
the Jews, into captivity, and the rage of Magog against 
Israel who came to avenge all this wrong. 

From this time forth a new enemy appears on the field 
of blood: And it shall come to pass at the same time 
when Magog shall come against the land of Israel, saith 
the Lord God, that my • fury shall come up in my face. 
For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I 
spoken, surely in that day there shall be a great shaking 
in the land of Israel.”! 

“And it shall come to pass in that day that a great 
tumult from the Lord shall be among them ; and they 
shall lay hold every one upon his neighbor, and his hand 
shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.”]; 

“ And I will call for a sword against him throughout all 
my mountains, saith the Lord God : every man’s sword 
shall be against his brother. ”§ 

*Ezek. 38: 14. tEzek. 38: 18-19. +Zech. 14: 13. §Ezek. 38: 21. 


420 ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 

This is something new in modern warfare when as- 
sembled allies shall become combatants, arrayed against 
each other in mortal combat on the field of battle, 

when every man’s sword shall be against his brother.”' 
This great “ tumult from the Lord” among them, will be 
the holy war proclaimed by I>lam that many so long have 
dreaded. Unrestrained by the nations in the past in their 
march to murder, despoil and ravish at will, this enemy 
of civilization will call on all followers of Islam to bring 
the world to Mohammed by the sword. 

When the Turks took possession of Jerusalem they 
built the Mosque of Omer upon the site of Solomon’s 
Temple. When the Mosque was finished they closed up 
with mason-work the gate that was in the wall of the 
city, near by the Mosque — which is called the Golden 
Gate — and said that this gate would never be opened un- 
til Mohammed, their great prophet, would come back to 
earth. When he came back to earth he would burst open 
this gate and sit upon the flat rock that is outside of the 
wall of the city, and from there judge the nations that are 
gathered round about Jerusalem. 

All this Mohammed copied from the Bible and inserted 
in the Koran, as a set-off against Christ’s coming again to 
judge the nations that have assembled by His command, 
as we read in Joel 3:9-12. 

All intelligent Mohammedans have a full knowledge of 
this expected return to earth of their prophet, at this the 
gathering of the nations. 

At the very first of this gathering before Jerusalem, 
secret agents had gone out over the Mohammedan world, 
telling them that this was the gathering so long expected, 
and that they could now look for Mohammed to come to 
judge the world before the nations separated. 

They also told them that he would not come until he 
saw them, his followers, actively engaged in killing with 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 42 I 

the sword all men of different religions, who were within 
their reach, as he had done in his life-time and as he had 
commanded them to do after he left them. 

The command given to the followers of Mohammed re- * 
specting their action against other people is given in part 
in the following extract from the Koran : 

“ When you fight the battles of the Lord acquit your- 
selves like men, without turning your backs, but let not 
your victory be stained with the blood of women and" 
children. Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of 
corn. Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to 
cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When you make any 
covenant or article, stand to it and be as good as your 
word. As you go on you will find some religious per- 
sons who live in monasteries, who propose to themselves- 
to serve God in that way ; let them alone and neither kill 
them nor destroy their monasteries. And you will find 
another sort of people that belong to the synagogue of 
Satan, who have shaven crowns ; be sure you cleave their 
skulls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mo- 
hammedans or pay tribute.” 

These secret agents set a day when this slaughter of the 
men of all religions was to begin, “ And,” said they, 
“ the cleaving of the skulls of your enemies must continue 
from day to day until Mohammed, your great prophet, 
comes.” 

Thus the whole Mohammedan world was made ready 
for this work of destruction to be begun simultaneously 
everywhere. This same policy this people have carried 
out in the past on every favorable opportunity. No peo- 
ple on earth have such a religious frenzy. Tell them that 
the holy cause of Islam calls for them, and all the ener- 
gie^of life are called into being and freely offered to the 
cause. 

Their third and highest heaven is a heaven of licentious- 


422 ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 

ness, and they are sure of this highest happiness only 
when they die in battle, facing the foe. There is no 
heaven at all for a Mohaininedan, according to their be- 
lief, if they die with their back to the foe. Therefore, a 
Mohammedan fears nothing, but instead has everything to 
gain by death in battle. Death must come when they are 
slaying their enemies — those of some other religion. 
This accounts for their terrible fighting and staying 
powers. 

This religious frenzy will be the sword which the Lord 
will call for, when every man’s sword will be against his 
brother. Their subjugation will practically mean exter- 
mination. 

On the eve of the day set by the Mohammedans for the 
beginning of the bringing of the world to the feet of Mo- 
hammed, the officers of these people were seen hurrying 
from tent to tent, talking in low whispers, and gesticulat- 
ing in a frantic manner to the men. 

Little did Gog and Magog know what was in store for 
them when the sun rose on the following morning. It 
was to them the shadow of the' night before their des- 
truction. 

On the morrow the Mohammedan cavalry were all up 
and saddled, ready for action, before the sun rose. The 
sentinels' of Gog were surprised at this early movement on 
the part of their allies, and wondered what it all meant. 
They did not have long to wait, for as the sun rose above 
the mount of Olives, the wild cry went up from every fol- 
lower of Mohammed : 

“ The world for Allah and Mohammed ! The world 
for Allah and Mohammed ! Strike dead every man who 
does not w'ear the Crescent. Strike, strike, until your 
prophet, comes ! ” 

Now had come the time to bring to pass that far back 
prophecy that the Lord of Hosts had spoken of: “My 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 423 

fury shall come up in my face, * * * * And I will call 
for a sword against him (Gog and Magog) throughout all 
my mountains, saith the Lord God. Every man’s sword 
shall be against his brother.”* 

The great host of Gog and Magog were taken com- 
pletely by surprise. No cannon could they turn against 
this new foe, for they were everywhere among their sol- 
diers. In the camps, among the gunners, charging the 
battalions of their infantry, and in a hand-to-hand contest 
with the Cossack cavalry. No army had been in such a 
sad plight before. Even with all their vast preparations 
for superiority in numbers and with every device of art 
and strategy, of what avail was it all when a hand-to-hand 
encounter for very life had to be waged with an enemy 
that was part of themselves, that were in their midst and 
on every side and mingling with their soldiers? 

It was in truth a “great tumult, ”f “a great shaking 
among them,”| that was to be seen by Israel from the 
opposite heights. That “mighty army”§ was melting away. 
Great gaps were seen where all lay still in death. 

The nations of Israel were bewildered. What did it 
all mean ? They could hear the wild shouting, they could 
see the mad gallop of the cavalry against each other. 
They could at last discern that there was a deadly, close 
hand-to-hand combat within the army of their enemies. 

Through two whole days this awful carnage went on, 
but on the morning of the third day, the remnant, the 
fiercest of the followers of Mohammed, with flags flying, 
were seen to start towards the army of Israel, to fight 
with them. Their coming was like a whirlwind. Then 
Israel knew what it all meant. 

“ The world for Allah and Mohammed!” cried their 
leaders. “Before you lies heaven ; behind you is death 
and hell.” II These frenzied zealots dashed themselves 


*Zech. 14: 13. tZech. 14, 13. lEzek. 38: 18-19. 
lIThis was the battle cry of Mohammed in his life time. 


§Ezek. 38: 15. 


424 all nations gathered before JERUSALEM. 

madly against the cavalry and infantry of the Israelites. 

What vehemence there is in unrestrained prejudice, was 
never before seen or acted out. . A license at last is asked 
for by man from the powers of hell, and granted without 
a bar. 

It was not only the antipathy of the sons of Esau (for 
the Turks are the descendants of Esau) for the sons of 
Jacob, but this early hatred had been intensified by centu- 
ries of the greatest possible difference between two oppo- 
site religions of opposing principles, — one of ‘‘ peace and 
good will to men,” and the other the “ power of the 
sword”* against man. 

This terrible impetuosity was the rage of hell’s votaries. 
HERE INDEED WAS A DREADFUL BROTHER- 
HOOD OF MEN IN ALLIANCE WITH THE DEVIL 
AND HIS HOSTS. 

Strange that a man, a general who had lived thirteen 
hundred years before, had the power to thrill his follow- 
ers so long afterward with a giant’s strength, far more so 
than he did when in life with his immediate followers, 
when this, the crucial moment, had come ! Strange that 
so long afterward he could inspire his followers to make 
the mightiest effort within their power, being united even 
as one man ! 

The valor of the American, British and German horse 
as they met this new foe was never more conspicuous than 
on this battlefield, nor did Mohammedans ever face a foe 
with such fanatical determination to give battle to the 
death as at this time. 

At different places along the line of the Scotch cavalry 
before they started to meet the mad charge of the troops of 
Islam, a Scotch General rode. Waving his sword around 
his head, he said : “ On, on, sons of Scotland ! Strike for 
the sepulchres of your fathers, uphold their immortal 


*Gen. 27: 40, 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 425 

fame! Strike for your fathers’ God, strike for the free- 
dom of the world ! On, on ! ” 

No other words could have been said that would have 
stirred the hearts of the sons of Scotland as did these. 
Every man’s thoughts went over the past history of his 
fathers on the battlefields of earth, and each thought of 
the mighty principles that had been at stake when their 
fathers so many times won the fight, frequently against 
such terrible odds. They remembered the great good the 
victories won had brought to the world. As those men 
of Scotch descent galloped to meet this fanatical horde, 
^very man determined to sell his life as dearly as possible, 
^ for the sake of his country, for liberty and for his God. 
No such wild charge was ever seen, as with banners fly- 
ing these veterans of the Scotch and Scotch-Irish race 
rushed into the battle. 

No such deathless hate ever displayed its marvelous pow- 
er of destruction as on this battlefield ; and yet there was 
right on one side and wrong on the other. There is no 
language that can describe that battlefield as seen after the 
many days of fighting. But this last awful death struggle 
of Islam for supremacy, added multitudes to the dreadful 
death list with all its horrors. It was indeed the “ Valley 
of Hades.” 

Would God endure the race and people any longer that 
were so filled with hate and frenzied rage against their 
fellows? Would it not be mercy to make the ashes of their 
fire-consumed bodies the shrouds of their dead spirits as 
well ? 

Hundreds of thousands of horses and millions of men 
were dead or dying.* More in number than men would 
ever know, for men could not count them, nor would they 
be allowed to count them, for God Himself would dispose 
of them in the near future. 


*Ezek. 39: 2. 


426 ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 


In their hot rage against each other “ multitudes, mul- 
titudes,”* had fallen down, slain, many more than ever 
before were slain on a battlefield when men were the com- 
batants. 

This we might expect of the last battle ever to be fought 
by man against man. We expect it to be an awful bap- 
tism of blood, when the hate of man against man, born of 
hell, shall have itsMast harvest of death. 

No such clouds of cavalry ever before rushed so madly 
to death. Never before did such encountering hosts 
charge each other in such deathless rage. Never before 
in the past did such thirst for blood fill so great a multi- 
tude of earth-dwellers. Rage on in fury. Earth and Hell, 
you have been close allies for six thousand years. Belch 
forth destruction to your own forces, for it is your last field 
of blood, and battle on this earth. Therefore, slay, slay, 
satiate yourselves with the cries of agony from the wound- 
ed and dying; gaze in ecstasy upon the heaps upon heaps 
of quivering victims of your fiendish. hate ; hear the death 
rattle and the last gasp of life of the ones you have killed. 
Aye ! This, man’s last battle, shall never be forgotten 
while the earth remains. 

The sun was nearing its zenith. The noise of the bat- 
tle was rising higher as the sun rose higher in a clear blue 
sky above it all ; but victory had not yet been gained by 
either army. 

Here we must leave this “ Valley of Hades” for a while 
and see how the irihabitants of another world are viewing 
this work of hell. What action will God and His hosts 
take.^ for to lookers-on from heaven, all earth was a vast 
battlefield. One-fourth of all mankind had died by the 
sword and by famine. f The Mohammedan world was 
carrying fire and sword everywhere, but more especially 
against the Armenians, who are of the tribe of Dan.| 


■*Joel 3: 14. 


tSee “ Mighty Conflict of the Ages.” 


tRev. 6: 8. 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 437 

The Roman Catholic and the Greek Church had pre- 
viously issued an order for concerted action upon a certain 
day for murder and robbery of the adherents of other re- 
ligions, and, strange to say, the order was given to be car- 
ried out over the world upon the same day that was set by 
Islam, so that the “ world was reeking with the slain.”*" 
Many of those that were killed were the witnesses that 
had faithfully testified of the days of evil that would come 
upon the world for unrighteousness. For this testimony 
and for plunder they were slain. 

There was great rejoicing over this slaughter of the 
witnesses and in the looting ot the houses of the slain wit- 
nesses by the adherents of the Roman Catholic, Greek and 
Mohammedan churches. 

But their holding possession or making use of this great 
spoil that they had taken, and this great rejoicing would 
be of short duration. j- 

“ And after three days and a half the spirit of life from 
God entered into them and they stood upon their feet ; and 
great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they 
heard a great voice from heaven saying. Come up 
hither.”]; 

The preparations for the slaughter of the witnesses by 
the Romish Church were carried on so secretly that the A. 
P. A., the Knights of St. George and other anti-Catholic 
societies were completely taken by surprise, and as they 
were preparing to avenge the blood of their co religion- 
ists the fearful earthquake which destroyed the earth and 
brought the darkness, came, so that it was impossible for 
them to act in time against the common enemy. 

The 144,000 wore nearly all in prisons, placed there by 
the nominal and denominal Church from spite and bitter 
hatred. But God had placed them there for safe keeping 
from the fierce hatred of the Irish Catholic element that 


*Math. 24: 9; also James 5: 6. 


tRev. ii: 3-12, 


JRev. ii: 11-12. 


428 ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 

had been congregating within the cities of the world for 
centuries past. 

Famine had not touched them. Bread and water were 
meagre diet, but tliey had that in plenty when in prison, 
while many others in the world had not. This was God’s 
kindness to them ; His care over them.* 

In the nominal Church no man could be a- member un- 
ess he was able and willing to pay a certain sum of 
money. This money consideration was the standard of 
the church membership, for tlie character of the man or 
woman, no matter how bad, did not exclude them from 
being a member, nor from holding the highest office in 
the church. Giving had taken the place of the holy sacri- 
fice of the life and the shed blood of Jesus. 

The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, 
the prophet, was at last standing in the Holy Place, and 
the giver and receiver were alike desolate of any hope of 
Salvation. 

The rich men, the corporations, the trusts and syndi- 
cates had kept back “ the hire of the laborers by fraud, and 
the cries of them had entered into the ears of the Lord of 
Sabaoth.”t 

While the battle raged around Jerusalem and when the 
witnesses were being slain and famine and pestilence were 
doing their deadly work, the recording angels gave notice 
in heaven that one-fourth part of all the earth were slain 
with famine and the sword.]: That the last of the wit- 
nesses were slain§ throughout the world, and that only 
one -sixth of the armies of Gog and Magog and of Islam 
who had come against Jerusalem were now living. || 

No wonder when the seventh seal was opened and the 
terrible state of the earth was shown to the inhabitants of 
heaven that in astonishment they ceased to play upon their 
golden harps, and that the new song of Moses and the 


*Luke 21: 12. tJames 5: 1-5. JRev. 6: 8. §Rev. n: 7. HEzek. 39: 2. 


ALT. NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 429 

Lamb was hushed in silence upon their lips, and even the 
voices of the four and twenty elders ceased to give forth 
their songs of praise to Almighty God. For we read : 
“ There was silence in heaven about the space of half an 
hour.”* 

As the redeemed saints of the earth who sat around the 
throne and the four and twenty elders viewed it all, they 
waited in silence to see what punishment God would send 
upon the earth. God Himself was preparing to avenge 
this terrible state of matters upon the men who had 
brought it all about. John says : 

“ I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and 
to them were given seven trumpets.”! 

And now we read of a sad event. Another angel (came 
back from earth) and to him was given a golden censer; 
and there was given him much incense that he should 
offer it with the (agonizing) prayers of all saints (who 
had been recently slain upon the earth, and the earnest 
pleadings of the many imprisoned Watchers) upon the 
golden altar which is before the throne. And the smoke 
of the incense with the prayers of the dying saints ascend- 
ed up before God out of the angel’s hand.”J 

Now had come the time for God’s vengeance upon the 
earth for man’s wickedness. Man and devil had done all 
that they could to destroy this fair earth, but in great 
wrath and in judgment God would “Hurt the earth”§ and 
wicked men. He would carry out His plans and raise to 
life the slain witnesses, open the prison doors of the 
Watchers, come forth from heaven and call to the slain 
witnesses and to the Watchers to “ Come up hither,” 1| to 
meet Him as He comes to earth ; to bring order out of 
confusion, to establish peace instead of war, to stamp out 
oppression and greed, to restore all things and to usher in 

*Rev 8: i. +Rev. 8: 2. +Rev. 8: 4; also Luke 21: 12. §Rev, 7; 3. 

llRev. ii: 3-8; Math. 24: 31; i Cor. 15: 51-52; i Thess. 4: 16-17. 


430 ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 

that blessed time when love to God and love to man will 
be the dominant power in the world. 

We must now go back into the history of the slain mar- 
tyrs of the church, as we read of it in heaven. And 
when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar 
the souls of them that were slain, for the word of God, 
and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with 
a loud voice saying. How long, O Lord holy and true, 
dost diou not judge and avenge our blood on them that 
dwell on the earth? And it was said unto them, that they 
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow serv- 
ants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they 
were, should be fulfilled.”* 

Their fellow servants, the servants, of God, their breth- 
ren, thousands upon thousands of the “two witnesses”! 
of Judah and Israel were now lying dead upon the earth, 
slain by their enemies, and unburied. 

“ And now the angel that had carried the last prayers of 
these slain brethren and God’s witnesses from earth to 
heaven, took the censer that contained these prayers of the 
•slain saints and filled it with fire of the altar and cast it 
into the earth, and there were voices and thunderings, and 
lightning and an earthquake.”! 

VVe also read of some of the terrible judgments of God 
when the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air : — 

“ And there came a great voice out of the temple of 
heaven, from the throne saying. It is done.”§ 

Yes! the word of His command for retribution had at 
last gone forth. 

“ For behold the Lord cometh out of his place to pun- 
ish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity ; the 
earth shall also disclose her blood and shall no more cover 
her slain.” 11 ' 

*Rev. 6 ; 9 - 1 1 . tSee “ Mighty Conflict of the Ages,” page i 6 i. 

+Rev. 8: 5. §Rev. 16: 17. Ills. 26: 21. 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 43 I 

For the great day of His wrath has come, and who 
shall be able to stand?”* 

* * * * * 

We again take up the history of earth-dwellers and the 
terrible battle that was being waged about Jerusalem and 
over the world. . 

The sun was nearing its zenith when we last looked up- 
on that ocean of war of hell’s making. 

What effect would the “voices, the thunderings and 
lightnings, the hail”! “and fire mixed with blood, the dis- 
charge of heaven’s artillery have upon the soldiers of 
earth ? ■ 

A mighty change takes place : the cannonadihg and 
musketry are heard no more ; the uplifted sword is drawn 
back ; the double march of charge bayonets over slippery 
fields of blood comes to a halt; the cavalry in their mad 
gallop over heaps of once stalwart men, now weltering in 
their gore, are struck dumb with mortal terror. “I will 
smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with 
madness. ”§ 

Heaven’s forces, heaven’s artillery have come upon the 
scene of action. The noise of battle as it raged on earth 
by the artillery created by men, was but as the sighing of 
the breezes; the deadly instruments of earth were but as 
toys in the hands of children, compared with heaven’s 
artillery. 

“ For the Lord shall also roar out of Zion, and utter his 
voice from Jerusalem ; and the heavens and the earth 
shall shake.” II 

“ I will call for a sword upon the inhabitants of the 
earth, saith the Lord of Hosts. 1 herefore prophesy 
against them all these words, and say unto them, The 
Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his 
holy habitation ; he shall give a shout as they that tread 

*Rev. 6: 17 . tRev. ir: 19. tRev, 8: 7. §Zech. 12: 4. llJoel 3: 16. 


432 ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 

the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A 
noise shall come even to the ends of the earth ; for the 
Lord hath a controversy with the nations : he will plead 
with all flesh, he will give them that are wicked to the 
sword, saith the Lord.”* 

“ And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the 
midst of heaven saying with a loud voice. Woe, woe, 
woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other 
voices of the trumpet of the three angels that are yet to 
sound ! ”t 

Men at times have been filled with terror at the pros- 
pect of some celestial body striking the earth, but up to 
this time the earth has escaped that terrible calamity. But 
‘‘ now the fullness of time has come,” as it had been 
prophesied, and suddenly a great star was seen coming 
to the earth, sweeping through space with irresistible 
force. “ And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fall 
from heaven to the earth. ”| 

Ah, what terrible destruction that messenger of 
Divine wrath wrought for man ! “ And there was a great 
earthquake such as there was not since men were upon 
the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great, * * * * 
and the cities of the nations fell, and every island fled 
away, and the mountains were not found. ”§ 

In the far past the Lord of Hosts had said that when 
this time of evil had come, that “ all the men that are 
upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence, and 
the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places 
shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.”! 

“ The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard.”^ 

Truly the Lord had made good His promise : “I will 
smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with 
madness.”** 

*Jer. 25: 29-32. tRev. 8: 13. tRev, 9: i. §Rev. 16: 18-20. 

llEzek. 38: 20. Illsa. 24: 20. **Zech. 12: 14. 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 433 

Following in the wake of that falling star “A great 
whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the 
earth,”* and in that whirlwind “there fell upon man a 
great hail out of heaven, every hailstone about the weight 
of a talent. ”t 

“ And I will plead against him with pestilence and 
with blood ; and I will rain upon him and upon his bands, 
and upon the many people that are with him, an overflow- 
ing rain and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus 
will I magnify myself; and I will be known in the eyes 
of many nations, and they shall know that I am the 
Lord.”t 

Such a fusillade of firearms, carrying such shot, dis- 
charged from heaven over all the earthy amid the roar of 
thunder and the flash of lightning, will make men’s at- 
tempt at destruction appear as a thing of naught. 

“ Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking 
after those things which are coming upon the earth : for 
the powers of heaven shall be shaken. ”§ 

The awful din and roar of the battle goes on, but man 
takes no part ; he tries to hide from the most awful dem- 
onstration of God’s wrath ever seen upon the earth. 

This is retribution to earth dwellers from God Al- 
mighty, and who can say it is not just? As we look over 
the earth we see the mountains thrown down, and where 
the mountains stood there are now “ great streams of wa- 
ter;” this would come about in the “day of the great 
slaughter when the towers fall.”! 

Despair, deep and full, has possession of nearly all the 
earth-dwellers who are alive and scattered abroad, one 
here and one there over all parts of the earth. “ Behold 
the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, 
and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.”^ 

*Jer. 25: 32. tRev. 16: 21. About one hundred pounds. 

tEzek. 38: 22-23. . §Luke 21: 26. Illsa. 30: 25. Ulsa. 24: i. 

ri 9 


434 NATIONS GATHERED B EFORE JERUSALEM . 

If the mountains, and the steep places and the everlast- 
ing hills are thrown down, no wall of man’s buildiug will 
remain standing in that day- of the Lord’s power and of 
mortal’s anguish. The terrible hurricanes that will en- 
circle this earth in the wake of falling heavenly bodies 
will be sufficient to level all that might have been left 
standing. 

“ Thus saith the Lord, Behold evil shall go forth from 
nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up 
from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord 
shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto 
the other end of the earth : they shall not be lamented, 
neither gathered nor buried, they shall be as dung upon 
the ground.”* 

So that the world was now homeless and houseless. 
“Every house is shut up, that no man may come in.”| 
No wonder the Saviour said in warning to those who 
would see that day : “ Pray that your flight be not in the 
winter.”! 

The nations are not now seeking after more territory 
and spoil, nor are the rich men seeking for gold, rich ap- 
parel and great estates. They do not now despise the 
poor. In mockery James speaks to the rich men : “ Go 
to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries 
which are come upon you.”§ 

The doctors and teachers of theology did not know 
of this time of “great tribulation, such as was not 
since the beginning of the world, to this time, nor ever 
shall be.” II Yet it was all written plainly in the book they 
professed to teach. The Lord speaks to them at this 
time : 

“ I am the Lord that maketh all things * * * that 
maketh diviners mad, and turneth wise men backwards, 
and maketh their knowledge foolish.”^ 


Uer. 25: 32-33. 
11 Math. 24: 21. 


tisa. 24: 10. 
Ulsa. 44: 24-25. 


JMath. 24: 20. • §James 5: 6; 


ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM . 435 

“ Howl, ye shepherds, and cry and wallow yourselves 
in the ashes, ye principal of the flock ; for the days of 
your slaughter and your dispersions are accomplished ; 
and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shep- 
herds shall have no way to flee, not the principal of the 
flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds and a 
howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard : lor 
the Lord hath spoiled their pasture.”* 

The principal of the flock do not now lord it over any 
man. They are now on the same level with other peo- 
ple, seeking to save their lives from the awful chasms of 
the opening and closing earth, from the trembling rocks 
and sinking mountains, from the lightning, the hail and 
the fire. The most deadly hate of man for man is felt no 
more ; the desire to take the life of his fellows is now 
past. Memory wakens within every man at such a time, 
and the wicked past comes up in every soul. “ Surely,” 
they will say, it is the last day, the day of judgment.” 
These are certainly terrible judgments, but it is not the 
last day, nor the end of the world. 

‘‘ I will punish the world for their evil, and the wdcked 
for their iniquity : and I will cause the arrogancy of the 
proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the 
terrible. “ I will make a man more precious than fine 
gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.”t 
The star that fell from heaven was the key that opened 
the bottomless pit (of earth). And when the bottomless 
pit was opened there arose a smoke out of the pit like the 
smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were 
darkened by reasori of the smoke of the pit.”J 

How hard it is to conceive anything so dreadful as the 
continuous roaring of the falling, rushing waters, as they 
sink down, down into the fearful abyss of earth, where 


*Jer. 25: 34-^5-36. tisa. 13: 11-12. See also Isa. 24 and Isa. 29: 1-9. 
+Rev. 9; 1-2. 


436 ALL NATIONS GATHERED BEFORE JERUSALEM. 


the highest mountain ranges once stood! ‘‘Fire and 
pillars of smoke,”* shall then go up, and the sun shall be 
darkened and the moon shall not give her light.” Then 
would begin a battle between the inrushing of the mighty 
ocean and the long pent-up liquid fires of Mother Earth 
now set free, that would far exceed the imagination of 
mortals. The meeting of these two elements would 
cause mountains of ashes to go up, and seas of water 
to rise in vapor from the earth, which would cause “ the 
sun to go down at noon,” and “darken the earth in the 
clear day.”t In this way will come to pass the Scripture 
prophecies respecting the darkening of the sun, moon and 
stars. 

^Joel 2: 30. tAmos 8: 9. 



CHAPTER VIII. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 

Another scene is closed for earth-dwellers. God Al- 
mighty has drawn a curtain over the whole panorama of 
earth’s misery and woe, so densely dark that the inhabit- 
ants of earth are groping in blackness of darkness as 
blind men, and heaven’s dwellers see earth only as a dark 
ball. 

The state of the world has thus been shown as far as 
the Scriptures have informed us, when the darkness hides 
the fields of carnage, famine and death over the whole 
world. All nations have received an awful baptism of 
blood. 

In this darkness the earth will remain for three days and 
a half,* and then there will come another and a still more 
dreadful chapter in man’s history. 

In the hour that the star fell from heaven, causing the 
mighty earthquake, every prison wall had fallen to the 
ground, and the imprisoned Watchers were all set free, 
and the prophecy made by Christ, “ There shall not a hair 
of your head perish, ”f had been fulfilled. Not one of the 
144,000 had died, for those of them who were impris- 
oned all walked out safely from among the falling walls. 

Harvey and all the others of our story who had been 
imprisoned, as well as every other Watcher throughout 
the whole world, now hastened with glad hearts to the 
place of the annual meeting of the Watchers, in the dif- 


•Rev. ii: 9-12. 


tLuke 21: 18. 


43^ BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 

ferent cities and towns throughout the world, where each 
one expected to meet fellow Watchers. 

Well they knew of the darkness that would follow tliat 
awful earthquake, which caused the falling of the prison 
walls and sinking of the mountains. The Spirit had told 
them to hasten to their companions before the black dark- 
ness came over the earth. 

When the walls of their prison-houses fell, the most 
natural thought for them would be to go to their homes, 
but the command of the Bridegroom at this crucial mo- 
ment, “ Let him which is on the housetop, not go down 
into the house, neither enter therein, to take anything out 
of the house,” came vividly up before each Watcher. 
“ Hasten to your own company,” the Spirit plainly said 
to each one, “ Do not turn back again to take up your gar- 
ment.”* 

All of earth is about at an end for these faithful watch- 
ing ones. They well know that now it is only three days 
and a half, until they shall hear the sound of His trumpet, 
and this dense darkness that is settling down upon the 
earth will be dispelled at the end of that time by His Glo- 
rious Appearing. 

“ But in those days after that tribulation, the sun shall 
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and 
the stars of heaven shall fall and the powers that are in 
heaven shall be shaken.”! 

One thought now impelled each one of the Watchers 
forward,— if only they could get to their company before 
complete darkness settled down upon the earth, they would 
be able to comfort one another,! when thus waiting in the 
night of death that had come to the world. 

One by one, the first twelve who had organized and 
constituted the first tower of Zion’s Watchers, came to that 
gathering. 


•Mark 13: 15-16. 


tMark 13: 24-25. 


+i Thess. 4: 18. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 439 

There were a great number in the city who also came 
to this gathering, besides those who belonged to Tower 
No. I. The greeting of each one to the other was very 
tender. All knew what had befallen Harvey in the res- 
cue of Verna from the prison, and they gave him welcome 
and praise, saying to him : “ God has kept you through it 
all and has brought you safe back to us a free man.” 

“Yes.” answered Harvey, “I had no fear that God 
would let my enemies do me any harm.” 

Verna’s greeting to Harvey was tender beyond expres- 
sion. “God is good,” she said; “He has heard our 
prayers and has brought you safe to us. You were kind 
to me and cruel to yourself in taking my place, but I 
would far rather you had not made the exchange. God 
would have taken care of me in that prison as well as he 
has taken care of you. 

“ What joy there is in having given heed to the voice of 
God within the soul, as the Teacher and Guide of the 
lives of mortals, was never known to any others on earth 
before, as is now experienced by us,” said Verna address- 
ing the Watchers. “ God as our Great J'ather has ful- 
filled His promise to us because we have given heed to His 
teachings. ‘ If you will walk in my ways, I will give you 
places to walk among those that stand by.’* 

“ We understand what all this desolation and darkness 
means. We have the most joyful anticipation of the com- 
ing of the Bridegroom, to claim His Bride in the imme- 
diate future,! and we know in part what the joy will be to 
each of us, for the Lord has given us ‘ paths to walk in,’ 
while all others have not any lamp to light their 
pathway.! 

“ / know that there is not one of us at this tune 
who wotild if he could fan the ashen brands of his 
earthly life again into burnings even if youth and all 

*Zech. 3; 7. tMark 24: 26. $Psalmsii9: 105. 


440 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


else were his. The earthly light and earthly loves thaf 
have faded from us, even if they had been realized, at 
best, were but a shadow. But the new life so near at 
hand for us will be the true substance. 

“ The better and truer — the Divine love — has held its 
place within our hearts in the shadowy life, and now our 
reward is near at hand, and such a reward as will be a full 
recompense for all our sufferings. Well it has been tor us 
at this hour that we have obeyed Christ’s command : 

Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged 
with the cares of this life.’* If we had not obeyed this 
command this day might have come upon us unawares, 
and we might have lost the glorious crown that now 
awaits us.” 

“ My joy,” said Harvey, ‘‘ at seeing you all is a glimpse 
of heaven after my long imprisonment ; but far above this 
rises the star of hope, transcending all others, which is the 
near approach of the time when the Bridegroom shall appear 
to claim His Bride, and then the joy of all joys shall have 
full fruition to us all who have watched for His coming 
and ‘ who have loved His appearing.’ We all have had 
our trials, temptations and sorrows before we could cross 
this river, as it has been written : 

‘ There’s always a river to cross, 

Always an effort to make, 

If there’s anything good to win. 

Any rich prize to take. 

Yonder’s the prize we crave. 

Yonder the heavenly scene. 

But deep and wide, with a troubled tide. 

Was the river that lay between.’ ” 

Continuing, Harvey said : “ We are now almost across 
the dark and rolling waters of our troubled life. Beyond 
this inky canopy that at present encircles this earth, f the 
Bridegroom is now sending forth His messengers ‘ with 

tMath. 24; 29-30. 


*Luke 21: 34. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


441 


trumpets that will be heard from one end of heaven to the 
other,’* to gather in the hosts of the redeemed, as His in- 
vited guests, which have taken 6,000 years to gather in 
and prepare. ‘ A multitude that no man can number, ’f 
who have been invited to this feast of all feasts : ‘ The 
marriage supper of the Lamb.’]; 

“ From Enoch down through the ages they are gather- 
ing at the sound of the trumpet, ready, as the redeemed 
saints of God, ‘ to come back to earth with our Lord Jesus 
Christ. ’§ ‘ Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand 

of His saints. ’ll 

“ These redeemed ones will proclaim to three worlds — 
Heaven, Earth and Hell — that God the Father has accept- 
ed the sacrifice of the life of His Son to redeem man, and 
has also heard and answered the prayers of His Son as 
man’s advocate as He stood at God’s right hand since His 
ascension.” 

“ As we watch and wait for the first sound of this trum- 
pet’s call,” said Verna, “ and the first gleam of light that 
shall come from His glorified presence, let us give praise 
to our God and coming King for His wondrous loving 
kindness and His tender mercies to us in the past, and at 
the present happy hour, all unworthy as we have been.” 

With a voice seemingly tuned in heaven, Verna sang 
the old hymn that now in the darkness had a new mean- 
ing to her and every one else -• 

“All hail the power of Jesus’ name ! 

Let angels prostrate fall; 

Bring forth the royal Diadem, 

And crown Him Lord of all. 

“Oh that with yonder sacred throng 
We at His feet may fall ! 

We’ll join the everlasting song, 

And crown Him Lord of all.” 


•Math. 24: 31; Mark 13: 27. tRev. 7: 9. tRev. 19: 7-9. §i Thess. 3: 13. llJude 14. 


442 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


Continuing, Verna said : “I have wondered at the fore- 
sight given by the Holy Spirit to James, and his words of 
counsel which have been handed down through the ages 
to comfort us through these years of our watching and 
waiting. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, to the Twelve tribes which are scattered abroad 
greeting.* Thirteen times he addresses them as brethren ; 
he also refers to the prophets as his brethren. 

“ Still speaking to his brethren of Israel he says: ‘ Be 
patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." 
Again : ‘ Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts : for the 
coming of the Lord draweth nigh.’f 

“ We have but to read his condemnation of the rich 
men in the fifth chapter and compare it with the miseries 
and desolation that have now spread over the world, to be 
satisfied that he was speaking to us. I hope that patience 
and steadfastness have had their perfect work in our lives, 
and that the seal of tlie 144,000 of the Twelve Tribes of 
Israel, as John heard it proclaimed by the angel from the 
clouds of heaven, has long since been placed upon our 
brows. Our watching and waiting is about over. ‘ Be- 
hold I come quickly ’j has a meaning to each of us now as 
in no time in the past.” 

As the hours of their waiting and their watching in 
the darkness passed, their expectation and their hopes 
grew. It was becoming far too solemn a time for words. 
The hours were too sacred for any actions or emotions of 
■an earthly character. Hunger, thirst, weariness, sadness, 
or any earthly affection were all forgotten by them in the 
enthusiasm and intense yearning for the rapturous joy of 
meeting the Bridegroom. 

They listened for the first note of the great trumpet 
which would herald the moment when He and His great 
company would leave the throne of Llis Father to come to 


*James i: i. 


tJames 5: 7-8. 


JRev 22: 7-20. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


443 


earth to claim His Bride and establish His kingdom on 
earth.* 

Their eyes tried to pierce that darkness for the first ray 
of light from His Glorified Presence and also of the in- 
vited guests who are coming to the “ marriage supper of 
the King’s Son.”f 

* * * * * 

The Lord had commanded His Watching ones : “ Pray 
ye that your flight (from falling walls) be not in win- 
ter,”! as alsp their flight to meet Him in the air. They 
had prayed earnestly that their ascension would take place 
in the summer time, for a world would then be homeless^ 
and all human sufferings would then be much greater if 
this desolation of the world had come in the winter. 

The three days and a half are ended (which was as a 
long summer night, for it is summer in the Northern 
Hemisphere, where Israel dwells) the period when the 
bodies of the slain witnesses of Judah and Israel were to 
remain unburied and when they must be recalled into the 
new and immortal life.§ 

Three days and nights the world lay in darkness,, 
mourning in silence. Man’s fierce passions rage no more 
nature’s dreadful war had hushed its awful roar, as if 
wearied by its awful struggle. 

But hark ! From out of that darkness the clarion notes 
of a great trumpet are heard. Never before did angels 
have such cause to sound forth a trumpet. 

The great High Priest many centuries ago went behind 
the vail into heaven’s holiest of holies until the time ap- 
pointed. Now He was about to return from behind the 
vail of heaven’s canopy, to come to earth once more,|l and 
earth and heaven must be awakened with a mighty trum- 
pet voice. 

*Math. 24: 31. tJude 14; also Rev. 19: 14. +Math. 24: 20. 

§Rev. ii: 3-12; Math. 16: 21; Math. 27: 63. 

USee pages 386-7 “ Mighty Conflict of the Ages.” 


444 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


The universe of God is startled with the terrifying 
notes as they roll and reverberate from pole to pole, from 
east to west, from heaven to earth. 

As mortals listen in terror they gaze in wonder towards 
heaven, they see a great light in the distant heavens. As 
they look the light increases in brightness, gleaming afar 
into all valleys. “ For as the lightning cometh out of the 
east and shineth even unto the west : so shall also the 
coming of the Son of Man be.”* 

Now they see forms of men, — many thousands of them, 
whose bodies glow with brightness in the heavens. f 
Nearer, nearer they come, while the trumpet’s voice still 
peals forth its mighty notes, as if saying: “ Roll back the 
clouds, open the vail from earth to heaven and let earth- 
dwellers see their God and Saviour, and the many mys- 
teries of the past.” 

Suddenly a great glad cry goes up from the Watchers 
who are gathered about Jerusalem, and who are a part of 
the 144,000: 

“Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet 
Him!” + 

All that there is in expectancy to the heart while 
still human was felt by the Watchers at this moment. 
They had lost all ideality ; imagination was sadly at fault, 
they had forgotten all personality. They knew only one 
thought, and that filled earth and heaven for them, — the 
Bridegroom was coming. They are now waiting for His 
summons: “ Come up hither;” for in the forefront of all 
that throng there is One upon whom every eye is fixed, 
whose brightness and glory have dispelled all darkness and 
gloom ; so that the light far exceeds that of the nat- 
ural sun. 

But all others who are living are astonished. They ask : 
“ Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed gar- 

*Math. 24: 27. tDan. 12: 3. JMalh. 25: 6. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


445 


ments from Bozrah ; this that is glorious in His appareU 
traveling in the greatness of His strength? Wherefore 
art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments red like 
him that treadeth in the wine-vat?” 

They hear His voice saying: “1 have trodden the 
wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with 
me ; for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample 
them in my fury ; and their blood shall be sprinkled on 
my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the 
day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my re- 
deemed is come. And I looked and there was none to 
behold, therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto 
me; and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread down 
the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my 
fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.”* 
They stand astonished and transfixed. They hear an 
agonizing cry among their number ; they hear it again, 
some one knows this leading figure, and cries in agony : 
“ Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified ! ” 

“ Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see 
him, and they also which pierced him.”t 

This Jesus, once the Man of Sorrows, now living and 
glorified and made “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD 
OF LORDS,”! and this great company which came with 
him, hover over Jerusalem, encircled with a cloud of glory 
such as mortals never saw before. 

The three days and a half of darkness are ended in 
which the slain witnesses were to lie unburied upon the 
face of the earth ; and lo ! “ the spirit of life from God en- 
tered into them, and they stood upon their feet; (for as 
Christ arose from the grave on the third day, so will the 
slain witnesses rise from the places where they were slain) 
* * * * “ and they heard a great voice saying unto them : 
Come up hither. ”§ Christ comes to awaken them out of 


*Isa. 63: 1-6. 


tRev. i: 7. 


JRev. 19: 16. 


§Rev. ii: 11-12. 


446 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


their sleep, as He awakened Lazarus, saying: “Come 
forth ! 

At this time a strange contrast is seen in the demeanor 
of the Watchers, and the slain witnesses again made alive 
as compared with all those who were their enemies. The 
astonishment of the Watchers at His Glorious Appearing, 
which so much exceeded any conception of their minds, 
although they were watching for His coming in great 
glory, was beyond compare; yet when they heard the 
voice of the Bridegroom, saying: “Come up hither,” 
they arose from the earth at the same moment as the 
risen slain witnesses. These slain witnesses would be 
raised “ incorruptible,” while the Watchers would be 
“ changed.”! 

“ For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the 
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 
then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”| 

With a shout of welcome, and bursting into rapturous 
melody, they sing the new song that no man could learn 
but the 144,000 which were .redeemed from the earth, 
fitted for heaven and immortality without having tasted of 
death, so on that blessed morning they sing: “ Death is 
swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? 
O Grave where is thy victory ?”§ 

Rising higher and higher, and singing as they rise, they 
join the glorified throng in the sky. 

Not one of the terrible judgments of God that had come 
upon the wicked of eartli in the sounding of the six trum- 
pets had brought about a change of heart in the men that 
were still alive, as we read in Rev. 8 : 7-8-10-12-13, and 
Rev. 9 : i-i 3-13. 


*John ii: 11-43. ti Cor. 1.5: 52. Thess. 4: 15-17. §i Cor. 15: 51-57; Dan. 12: 3. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


447 


But before the seventh angel sounded, we read in Rev. 
II : 14-15, and after the sixth angel sounded also, that 
when the earth-dwellers saw the slain witnesses come back 
to life and rise with the 144,000 to meet their coming 
King in the air, that the remnant were affrighted and gave 
glory to the God of heaven.”* 

Thus we see that the wonderful manifestation of God’s 
power and love in calling back the slain witnesses and 
tlieir glorious ascension to meet their Coming King along 
with 144,000 has at last convinced the remnant of men 
which are left that there is but one God.'\ This estab- 
lishes another fact that the translated ones are upon the 
earth up to the time of sounding of the sixth trumpet and 
pass through persecution, are cast into prison, and hated 
of all men ; the tribulations of the gathering of the na- 
tions ; the famines and the pestilences ; the judgments fol- 
lowing the sounding of the six trumpets by the angels ; and 
the slaying of the witnesses, and also the great earthquake 
that caused the mountains to sink, “ and every wall to fall 
to the ground,” — the earthquake which was the cause of 
darkness that comes upon the earth, before the sign of the 
Son of Man was seen coming in the clouds of heaven. | 
The rapture of the ascension and the personal appear- 
ance of Christ will not take place till just previous to the 
sounding of the seventh trumpet. 

All these judgments will not hurt the Watching ones. 
We read these comforting words: “Thou shalt not be 
afraid for the terror by night ; nor for the arrow that flyeth 
by day ; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; 
nor for the destruction that wasteth by noonday. A thous- 
and shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right 
hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine 
eyes slialt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. ”§ 
These, tribulations Peter also refers to in the following 
words : 

*Rev^ ii: 11-13. 


tis. 2: 17-21. 


+ Math. 24: 29-30. 


§Psalm 91: 5-8. 


44S 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


“ Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
which is to try you, as though some strange thing hap- 
pened unto you ; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partak- 
ers of Christ’s sufferings ; that when his glory shall be re- 
vealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”* 

Christ says,. that “ unless those days be shortened there 
should no flesh be saved ; but for the elect’s sake, these 
days shall be shortened.”! 

If the elect were translated to heaven, — taken away from 
the tribulation, why would Christ say that the days of 
tribulation would be shortened for the elects’ sake.^ 

The earth-dwellers who remain are struck with mingled 
astonishment, terror, despair and confusion as they see 
these two companies going up from the earth towards this 
bright and shining throng in the clouds, and eventually 
joining them and partaking of the brightness and great 
glory. 

Terror never known to mortals before seizes them. 
“ They shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall 
be as flames. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold on 
them,”| and a wail of despair goes up from them. “ All 
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.”§ 

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and 
the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, 
and every bond man and every free man hid themselves in 
the dens and the rocks of the mountains; and said to the 
mountains and the rocks. Fall on us and hide us from the 
face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath 
of the Lamb : for the great day of His wrath is come : 
and who shall be able to stand.? ”|| 

“ Then shall they begin to say to the mountains. Fall 
on us; and to the hills. Cover us.”^ 

Moving mountains and rending rocks, and darkness 

*i Peter 4: 12-13. tMath. 24: 21-22. +Isa. 13: 8. §Rev. i: 7. 

IIRev. 6; 15-17. ULuke 23: 28-30. 


BEHOI.D THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 449 

have no terrors for them now ; they seek death rather than 
to be in His presence. 

In that troubled throng can be seen the Rev. Dr. Hous- 
ton, the nameless minister and many of His Church mem- 
bers, with as little knowledge of what it all meant or 
what the outcome would be as the poof beggar by their 
side. Some other ministers besides these were also there 
trying to hide from His presence, who in the past had 
permitted their bread and butter to dictate the tone of 
their lectures, and who had made merchandise of the 
Church of God,* but who could not now take any part in 
the marriage supper of the Lamb, who, when on earth be- 
fore, “ had not where to lay His head.” 

The Bridegroom and His company remained stationary 
in the air, between earth and heaven, as the earth revolved 
on its axis. Jerusalem and the parts of earth to the 
north, south, and east were now receding from His pres- 
ence and into the darkness again, while the turning of the 
earth brought the west into His presence, so that the 
watching ones, and the slain witnesses who were scattered 
over all the world heard His call : “ Come up hither,” 
and they filled the heavens with their song of triumph as 
they arose from the earth to meet the Lord in the air. 

As the earth revolved every eye was thus able to see 
Him, as it is written: “ Every eye shall see Him,” and 
they which were left upon the earth were also able to see 
the ones they had persecuted and slain, ascending to meet 
that heavenly throng. 

Thus joy and jubilant song filled the Watchers, while 
unutterable woe filled the foolish worldly ones who were 
left behind. 

When the earth had made one full revolution every 
one of the slain witnesses and Watchers had risen from 


*2 Peter 2: 1-3. 


30 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETII. 


450 


earth to meet their King, then this great throng which had 
now become immortalized hovered over Jerusalem. 

“At last the mystery of God is finished as He hath de- 
clared to his servants the prophets.”* 

“ That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he 
might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both 
which are in heaven, and which are on earth, ”t “ and 
gave him to be the head over all things to the Church. 

The armies of the Lord on earth had surrendered to 
the enemy and even joined the forces of evil. But of what 
avail had this union of forces been to either the apostate 
Church or to Satan? For now the redeemed ones re- 
claimed from the earth through the ages had returned to 
earth from heaven, all given new powers and gifts ; any 
one of these glorified ones could now overwhelm the 
enemy with defeat, for we know that “ when he shall 
appear we shall be like him.”§ “ When Christ who is 
our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him 
in Glory.”!! 

This consummation, this gathering, soon brought vic- 
tory to the Lord’s cause, for we read that when the great 
voice said : “ Come up hither,” that the few remaining 
earth dwellers “ were affrighted and gave glory to God 
when they saw the union of the earthly host with the heav- 
enly in the ascension.”^ 

Skillful would be the pen that could describe the glory 
and power of the hosts of heaven as they hover in the air 
above the earth, arrayed against those of earth and hell. 
That description we leave for the Divine pen to portray. 

“ And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, 
and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True ; 
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His 
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many 


*Rev. 10: 7. 
llCol. 3: 4. 


tEphes. i: 10. 
HRev. ii: II -13. 


tEphes. i: 22. 


§i John 3: 2, 


BEHOI.D THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


451 


crowns j and he had a nanio written that no man knew 
but himself. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, 
that with it he might smite the nations ; and he shall rule 
them with a rod of iron : and he treadeth the wine press 
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”* “And 
His name is called the Word of God.” 

“ The word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”t 

“ And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a 
name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF 
LORDS. 

“ And the armies which were in heaven followed him 
■upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
clean. ”§ 

Such a glorious sight the eyes of mortals had never 
seen. Such a chorus of jubilant, triumphant song, no 
ear ever listened to before. No conception of any mind 
could find words to describe this; THE GLORIFIED 
CHURCH OF GOD redeemed by the precious blood of 
Christ, now gathered from the Universe of God and hov- 
ering half way between earth and heaven. 

Man would fail in describing such a wondrous scene, 
but the Divine Pen has written fitting words. 

Hark ! God speaks ! 

“WHO IS SHE THAT LOOKETH FORTH AS 
THE MORNING, FAIR AS THE MOOxN, CLEAR 
AS THE SUN, AND TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY 
WITH BANNERS. ”11 

As the earth was reeking with the dead and dying, 
human beings, slain by man’s hatred to man, and now 
dwelling in thick darkness, well might it be asked : 

“ Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,” that 
will dispel such darkness and misery? Who will give a 
soft, soothing light as shed by the moon on a summer 

•Rev. 19: 11-12-15. tJohn i: 14. JRev. 19: 16; also 17: 4. 

.§Rev. 19: 14. IlSong of Solomon 6: 10. 


452 BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 

night, over the rage and hatred of men and devils, of earth 
and hell against the Prince of Peace and His followers, a.s 
now seen upon the earth? What \vill give a radiant light 
as clear as the sun” to guide the weary feet of the seek- 
ing pilgrims of the future to a resting place? 

Ah ! this the “ finished mystery” of the Church of God 
will accomplish all this, and much more, for they are a 
mighty “army with banners,” with power to overcome and 
defeat every foe. 

“And I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like 
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and there 
was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that 
all people, nations and languages, should serve him. His 
dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass 
away.”* 

Thus the hosts of the redeemed of the House of Israel 
and the House of Judah, were gathered to celebrate the 
marriage supper of the Lamb ;t but how could that feast 
be celebrated at Jerusalem, with the carnage of death that 
was spread abroad everywhere. 

“For in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make 
unto all people a feast of fat things of wines on the lees, of 
fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well re- 
fined.”]; 

The Bridegroom leaves His company for a time, and 
came and stood upon the Mount of Olives. § 

Looking upon that battlefield He wondered that there 
was none to uphold || the Gospel of Peace on earth and 
good will to men, that He gave His life to establish in the 
far past, — that Gospel that the Spirit had made rich unto 
Salvation to millions of the House of Israel and others. 

As the Lord stands upon the Mount of Olives His 
wrath is manifested as He looks upon that terrible 
scene and in His indignation and power. He commands 

*Dan. 7: 13-14- tisa. 63: 7. $Isa. 25: 6. §Zech. 14: 4. lllsa. 63: 5. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


453 


the Mount of Olives to cleave in the midst thereof, 
toward the east and toward the west, and half of the 
mountain shall move toward the north and half toward 
the south, and there shall be a very great valley.”* 

This rent mountain as it moves from the presence of its 
Lord and Maker carries every vestige of the carnage 
wrought by man, the dead and dying of men and horses, 
the blood and corruption are rolled together along with 
the living and hurled far away from the place where He 
would accept of His Bride, hold His marriage supper in 
her honor, and receive His kingdom from His Father. 

At the bottom of this mountain at both the north and 
south sides, no scene was ever witnessed like it. Millions 
upon millions of dead and living men and horses were 
rolled together at the base of the divided mountain, and 
heaped together into the great wine press of the wrath of 
God, so that we read, that ‘‘ In that day of grief and des- 
perate sorrow * * * the nations shall rush like the rush- 
ing of many waters : but God shall rebuke them and they 
shall flee far away, and shall be chased as the chafl' of the 
mountains before the winds, and like a rolling thing be- 
fore a whirlwind.”! 

“ And the wine press was trodden without the city (of 
Jerusalem), and blood came out of the wine press even up 
to the horses’ bridles, by the space of a thousand and six 
hundred furlongs. ’’J 

O, poor humanity ! How weak and helpless when you 
meet the Lord, your Creator, in battle ! Sad ending of a 
boastful age when great blessings and privileges were used 
in rebellion against the Giver. 

This valley of Death has been swept far away and in 
its place “ was a river (of living waters) that could not be 
passed over.”§ 

“ And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go 


*Zech. 14: 4. 


tisa. 17: 11-14. 


iRev. 14: 20. 


§Ez. 47: 1-5. 


454 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


out from Jerusalem ; half of them toward the former sea, 
and half of them toward the hinder sea : in summer and 
in winter shall it be.”* 

“ The former sea,” is the Persian Gulf, “the hinder 
sea,” is the Mediterranean. What a mighty fountain of 
waters this will be, running both ways and reaching to 
both seas “ in summer and in winter!” What a valley 
dividing two continents and joining two seas 1 

“ Now had come the time that the sanctuary was to be 
cleansed. Not alone is that battlefield cleansed, but the 
whole of Jerusalem is completely purged, and not a man 
left therein.”! 

Man has had no part in this great cleansing of the sanc- 
tuary ; he could not have cleansed it; only the Christ of 
the Almighty God could do this work. 

After the mountains were divided and the living foun- 
tains of water arose, from the earth, at the command of 
the Lord, then the Bridegroom brought His company 
down upon the floor of the sanctuary, which was this liv- 
ing stream of water. 

“ I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, 
and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having 
his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 

Two other great companies are also there, — the recent- 
ly slain witnesses, and the redeemed of the ages. 

“ And I saw the souls of them which were beheaded 
for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and 
which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, 
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in 
their hands ; and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years. ”§ 

From this great company will come the kings, priests, 
courtiers, ambassadors and all the others which will he 
needed to establish and carry on the work of the new 
kingdom on earth. 


*Zech. 14: 8. 


tier. 4: 29. 


iRev, 14: I, 


§Rev 20: 4. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


455 


“ The great fountain of living waters,” that now rise 
up in the midst of that ^ gieat valley,” is the appointed 
place, “ the cleansed sanctuary where the Bridegroom, 
the King of heaven and earth, receives and claims His 
Bride, the 144,000, and establishes His kingdom on 
earth.* 

The 144,000 occupy the place of the Bride, “'sitting 
down” with Him upon His throne. They are une ones 
who had lived in the time of the lukewarm Church of 
the latter days^ and who were “ the overcomers of their 
day.”t They are the ones who were changed from the 
mortal to the immortal without having tasted of death, and 
of whom John said : “ These are they which follow the 
Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”| , 

Tliese alone could occupy the place of the Bride, for the 
earthly body had not seen corruption, “ it was changed 
from the earthly into the heavenly,” but death, the great 
corrupter of the bodies of mortals, had no part in the 
change of the first body as it had had with all the others, 
over whom death and the grave have had the victory, be 
fore they received their new and immortal bodies. 

Now immediately the Marriage Supper of the Lamb 
takes place. It is heaven’s court held on earth, by the 
King of heaven and of earth, and with Him a great com- 
pany of the redeemed. Redeemed from the sword, from 
death, from the grave and the world. They are the 
heroes of the past who gave forth the milk of human 
kindness to their fellows as best they could, taking Christ 
as their Great Example. They are the ones who now fill 
the seats around the table at this Marriage Supper of the 
Lamb. 

What palms of victory they wave ! What songs of joy 
and gladness they sing ! What hallowed praise to God 
they chant! for heaven’s lamps are lighted, the golden 

*Dan. 7: 13-14; also Rev. 19: 15. tRev: 3: 21. tRev. 14:^4. 


456 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


lamps from Glory Land are tuned on earth, and heaven’s 
vials are filled with fat things, well refined. 

The white robes that will never wear out are put on by 
those who were once hungry, cold and naked. All are 
holy ; there is not an unsanctified one, an uncleansed one, 
in that mighty throng. 

“ They continue giving thanks unto the Father, which 
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance with 
the saints in light. Who hath delivered us from darkness, 
and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”* 

What a strange sight to see this glorified host in com- 
panies, floating hither and thither through the air, and 
hastening backwards and forwards upon the face of the 
“ living waters” in that valley, intent upon the great and 
important work of helping to establish the kingdom of 
the King of Kings! 

This great gathering was indeed a feast of “ fat things,” 
for they shall all know each other. The father shall rec- 
ognize his children, and the wife her husband, and chil- 
dren their parents. It is indeed a victory over the forces 
of earth and hell, as well as a feast, as we have tried to 
view it; but it is far more than all that. Satan, the great 
enemy and destroyer will be entrapped, and taken pris- 
oner by the hosts of the Lord. Into that company at this 
the Marriage Supper in that great deep valley, that is like 
a great cathedral and which is made light by the glory of 
His Presence, and the redeemed of the Lord, no mortal 
could come ; yet we read that “ when the king came in to 
view His guests. He saw there a man who had not on a 
wedding garment : and he saith unto him. Friend, how 
earnest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment.^ 
And heVas speechless. Then saith the king to his ser- 
vants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer 
darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth. ”t 


*Col. i: 12-13. 


tMath. 22: 11-12-13. 


BEHOI.D THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 457 

“ Now this, I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the kingdom of heaven.”* 

This spirit is Satan, bound, and bound by the re- 
deemed of the Lord. And so we read : “ Then shall the 
wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume by the 
Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness 
of his coming. ”t 

“ How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of 
the morning! how art thou cast down to the ground, 
which did weaken the nations.^ For thou hast said in 
thine heart * * * . I will ascend above the 

heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet 
thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the 
pit.”j 

This is even as Christ commanded : “ Bind him hand 
and foot and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be 
weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

As Satan is bound and taken away, the redeemed look 
■upon his person and say in amazement : 

“ Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that 
•did shake the kingdoms ; that made the world a wilder- 
ness and destroyed the cities thereof ; that opened not the 
house of his prisoners .^ ”§ 

When Satan was bound we read that “ There were 
great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his 
Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.”! 

“ And the nations were angry and thy wrath is come, 
Rnd the time of the dead that they should be judged, and 
that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the 
prophets, and to the saints and them that fear thy name, 
•small and great, and shouldst destroy them that destroy the 
«arth.”f 


*i Cor. 15: 50. 
IIRev, Ti: 15. 


I2 Thess. 2: 8. 
HRev. ii: 18. 


Jlsa. 14; 12-15. 


§Isa. 14: 16-17. 


458 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


No part of Christ’s mission as Great High Priest has 
been left unfinished. He has come back from - behind 
heaven’s veil and proved to the universe of God that the 
Father has accepted the sacrifice of His life and answered 
His prayers for the redeemed, by the mighty glorified 
host, that he brings back to earth with Him. 

He has rewarded the Watchers for their patient waiting 
and “ looking for Him,”* to come again and save them 
from their enemies and the power of death, “by granting 
them a seat upon His throne, ”t and the great blessing of 
“being always with him.”]: 

He has given a recompense to the faithful witnesses 
who gave up their lives rather than their testimony for 
their God and Saviour. 

Christ will now reign over all the earth as the Great 
Divine King. 

Although every artifice and device and strategem were 
used by the Devil as the former ruler, he has been de- 
throned and his forces routed. 

It was a fair fight in a fair field, and a change of rulers 
over the world is the result. His glorious reign upon 
earth is described by the prophet. 

“ Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun shall 
be ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount 
Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients glori- 
ously. ”§ 

All the world is in darkness once more, except the im- 
mediate vicinity about Jerusalem. The radiance of this 
new made King and His heavenly host, reaches far into 
the sky, but when the center of this glorious light is down 
in the valley, the bounds of the light are much contracted, 
compared to what it would be if high in the heavens, 
above the earth. 

With what terrible fear the remnant of men flee from 
His dread presence. 

*Heb. 9: 28. tRev. 3: 21. IRev. 14: 4. §Isa. 24: 23. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


459 


“God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee afar oflV 
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before^ 
the wind.”* 

Fleeing from His presence into the darkness that is over 
the rest of the world, is described in graphic words in' 
Scripture. 

“And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are 
gathered together in the pit, and shall be shut up in (that 
darkness) the prison. 

All the living men have fled far away from the pres- 
ence of the Lord, into the darkness. 

Now the Lord calls for the fowls of heaven to come and 
clear up this battlefield, this “ wine press of the wrath of 
God.” The radiance of light from His throne attracts- 
them because the rest of the world is in darkness, and they 
come to the feast. 

“And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord; Speak 
unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, 
Assemble yourselves and come ; gather yourselves on' 
every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even 
a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may 
eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the' 
mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of 
rams, of lambs, of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings 
of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink 
blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sac- 
rificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with 
horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all meni 
of war, saith the Lord God.”| 

“ And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried 
with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the 
midst of heaven. Come and gather yourselves together 
unto the supper of the great God ; that }e may eat the 
flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of 


*Isa. 17: 13, 


tisa. 24: 22. 


$Ezek. 39: 17-20. 


460 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


mighty men, and the flesh of horses and them that sit on 
them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both 
small and great.”* 

In those long days and nights of destruction, ending up 
in perpetual darkness, despair and the utter ruin of the 
earth and also of man’s vast handiworks, the worldlings 
were sore perplexed. No understanding had they of what 
it all meant, or of what lay in the future for them. Hav- 
ing no knowledge, they had no hope. Hopeless, it was 
that “ day of desperate sorrow, ’’f that had been foretold 
so long ago. 

So deep had their sorrow become on account of God’s 
awful judgments, that they “sought death but could 
not find it. So dense was the awful darkness about them 
that they could only feel about as people who were utterly 
blind. § 

No wonder they cry : “ Blessed are the barren, and the 
"wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave 
suck.” II 

“ Where are our children Will they come back to us, 
•or can we go to them ? ” Vainly they cry : “ Oh, that we 
had never been born ! ” 

No instrument of destruction could they find, but in 
their awful fear of the Lord Almighty, in their “ wild 
madness,” they “call on the rocks and mountains that 
they had seen rolling and tumbling about,” to fall upon 
them,^ and hide them from the face of Him who “sat 
upon that cloud ” and whom they had seen “ traveling to 
the earth in the greatness of His strength anything to 
hide them from His awful presence. Eternal oblivion 
•would be welcomed by them now ; but, alas ! the spirit of 
‘man once started into life never dies. 

Such a wringing of hands and such wild cries of 


*Rev. 19: 17-18. 
IILuke 23: 2Q. 


tisa. 17: II. 
IILuke 23: 30. 


tRev. 9: 6. 


§Zeph. i: 15-17. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


anguish were never spent against the walls of any tomb- 
before. Sad ending of great and blessed privileges and 
opportunities. 

By the side of the Rev. Dr. Houston and some of his- 
brother ministers could be seen some rich men, who had 
striven for the mastery in gaining riches by any means.. 
The words of prophecy had come home to them, had be-^ 
come history: “ Howl, ye rich men for the miseries that 
shall come upon you.”* 

No maniac ever gesticulated more wildly ; no such 
howls of misery ever ascended from mortals before. The 
awful past, the dreadful present, and the still more horri- 
ble future lay spread out before them, as a bottomless pit 
into which they were sinking. 

“All kindreds of the earth shall wail because of 

Him.”t 

“And to them it was given that they should not kill 
them, but that they should be tormented five months. 

At the end of that time the King saw deep repentance 
in every heart. The Lord had made good His promise : 
“ And the idols he shall utterly abolish. In that day a 
man shall cast his idols of silver and his’ idols of gold,, 
which they made, each one for himself to worship, to the 
moles and to the bats.”§ 

It was said of these prisoners that “ after many days 
they shall be visited.” 1| 

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, 
having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell 
on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue and 
people, saying with a loud voice. Fear God and give glory 
to him ; and worship him that made heaven and earth, and 
the sea, and the fountains of water. 

This is the same message as of old, yet ever new, — 

♦James 5: i. tRev. i: 7. +Rev. 9: 5. §Isa. 2; 20. 

lllsa. 24: 22. HRev. 14: 6-7. 


462 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


Peace on earth and good will to men.” ‘‘Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest and King, and 
thou shalt be saved.” 

His first care is for Judah, His own tribe, who are 
weeping alone, wit-h such a bitter wail, far away in the 
mountains.* 

“I will pour upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the 
spirit of grace and supplication.”! 

“ He will be very gracious unto them.” 

“ And it shall come to pass that before they shall call I 
•will answer them ; and while they are yet speaking I will 
hear.”! 

“ The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that 
the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhab- 
itants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against 
Judah.”§ 

All through the centuries the Christian world has des- 
pised the poor Jew ; they have magnified themselves 
against them ; now the world shall know that it was in 
the Lord’s plan, that all things pertaining to the mournful 
history of Judah were appointed thus, and could not be 
changed.' The heavy cross they have had to carry was 
.part of the great red cross of Calvary, and of Salvation, 
that they carried for their God; that the world might be 
saved. 

Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His 
word ; your brethren that hated you, and cast you out for 
my name’s sake, said. Let the Lord be Glorified : but he 
shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed. ’’H 

There is no mistaking the meaning of this verse. Ju- 
dah now trembled at his word as no people in the world 
ever before trembled; your brethren is Israel, Christian 
Israel. They hated Judah for crucifying Christ, and for 
fthis cast them out, persecuted them to the death “ for His 
^name’s sake.” 


*Zech. 14: 5. tZech. 12: 10. tis. 65: 24. gZech. 12: 7. Ills, 66: 5. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


463 


They said, “ If Christ were a man, born of a woman, 
yet he was the son of God the Saviour of men. Let Him 
be glorified.” While Judah was taught that God is but one 
person, and that no person could look upon that God and 
live, therefore when His plan is finished, all unknown to 
the world, He shall appear to your (Judah’s) joy, and 
Israel shall be ashamed.”* Ashamed of how lightly they 
esteemed Judah’s cross, forced upon them, yet nobly car- 
ried until the time of the end ; ashamed because they had 
gone so far astray from God’s laws and Christ’s teachings 
in this last great apostacy of the earth. 

‘‘ In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of 
his presence saved them : in his love and in his pity, he 
redeemed them : and he bare them and carried them as in 
the days of old.”t 

They have at last passed through all their “ affliction.” 
They had “ returned,” yet they had to be driven out tem- 
porarily, to make ready for His glorious coming, and for 
the cleansing of the sanctuary. Now they were made to 
hope ; they were all made to ask for mercy. 

“ They shall call upon my name and I shall hear them : 
I will say, It is my people : they shall say. The Lord is 
my God.”J 

One universal cry of sorrow and repentance goes up 
from the whole tribe, not only near Jerusalem, but over 
all the world, and God is gracious unto them. 

“ For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem : thou 
shalt weep no more : he will be very gracious unto thee at 
the voice of thy cry ; when he will hear it he will answer 
thee..”§ 

He answers them; He forgives them. The merciful 
Saviour, now crowned King of the earth, is just the same 
as when He cried, “ Father, forgive them, they know not 
what they do.” These people had once smitten him with 


*Isa. 66: 5. tis. 63: 9. 


iZech. 13: 9. 


§Is. 30: 19. 


464 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


a rod, bad crucified Him. Therefore, He gave them up, 
until “ She which travaileth hath brought forth.”* 

That bringing forth has been accomplished in Israeli 
But now another strange thing has come to pass, and the 
prophet asks, — “ Who hath heard such a thing who hath 
seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth 
in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon 
as Zion travaileth, she brought forth her children.”! 

Thus we see this strange giving up continued, this seem- 
ing rejection of a loving Saviour adhered to, until this 
glorious appearing come to pass, and this finished plan is 
all carried out. Then will Judah, “ That nation be born 
in a day;” then and not till then will the tribe of 
Judah accept Christ. Even as Christ’s mission as High 
Priest was not fulfilled until He came back from behind 
heaven’s veil, and is crowned king over this earth, so 
Judah’s separate mission of carrying the Covenant of 
Works will not be a completed work in the great plan of 
the ages until just such a consummation of all these mighty 
acts of the Lqrd shall come to pass. 

They have carried the heavy end of the cross through 
the ages. They have kept the faith of their fathers, the 
Covenant of Works, when all others gave up the fight. 

According to their pra}er, through so many centuries, 
they have had strength given them against their enemies, 
through the most terrible trials and persecutions. They 
have stood like an adamantine wall again'st every assault ; 
they have been brought back to Jerusalem ; they have at 
last seen their King, and in His great love He has spoken 
gracious words unto them. 

“ And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; 
we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is our 
Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and re- 
joice in his salvation.”! 


•Micah 5: 1-4. 


tis. 66: 8. 


+Isa. 25: 9. 


BEHOI.D THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 465 

Some people had to crucify Christ and bear that burden 
of shame. The lot fell to Judah and to them it was con- 
fusion confounded. But now a double spiritual joy, a 
double earthly portion is given them, a recompense for all 
their suffering. 

“For your shame ye shall have double ; and for your 
confusion ye shall rejoice in your portion ; therefore in 
your land ye shall possess the double : everlasting joy shall 
be unto you.”* 

“ I will get them praise and fame in every land, where 
they have been put to shame. 

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; in those days it shall 
come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all the 
languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt 
of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you for we 
have heard that God is with you.”| 

No service for Judah is now considered too much; all 
people vie with each other in aiding them to get back to 
Jerusalem, and to form part of that company, so that they 
may receive part of the great blessings. 

God had a great purpose in bringing the nations against 
Jerusalem. “ They shall come and see my Glory. ”§ 
There were few of them left ; “I will leave but a sixth 
part of thee.” II But for this remnant he had a mission of 
great importance, when they should return to their own 
land and their own people. 

“ I will send those of them that escape to the nations, 
to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal 
and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard of my 
fame, neither have seen my glory ; and they shall declare 
my glory among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all 
your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all na- 
tions, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and 
upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain 

*Isa. 61: 7. tZeph. 3: 18-20. iZech. 8: 23. Sis: 66: 18. llEzek. 39: 2. 

31 


466 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


of Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel 
bring: an offering: in a clean vessel into the house of the 
Lord.”* 

Thus the remnants of this mighty army are sent as am- 
bassadors to all parts of the world to bring back the half 
of Judah that had been carried away captives, and those 
of their brethren who had not come to the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem. They will have strange things to tell of what 
they have seen in and around' Jerusalem, when they were 
delivered from the gloom and darkness. They can tell of 
that GLORIOUS ASSEMBLAGE that all earth saw in the 
heavens — with the Lord — Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour 
of the world. They can tell that He has set His throne 
at Jerusalem, and He alone will now be King over all the 
earth, and that all men who want His favor and blessing 
must come arid sue for pardon. 

***** 

The whole tribe of Judah has now returned to Jerusa- 
lem with gladness and joy. They are saved first, that 
even the house of David “ may not magnify themselves 
against Judah. 

But the time has come for the remnant of the house of 
Israel and the house of David to ask mercy of the Great 
King. 

Those who had sufficient knowledge of God and the 
truths taught by the prophets as to know that these terri- 
ble events were the work of an angry God ; and having 
this knowledge had called upon God for mercy, and their 
cry had been heard and answered, so far as to spare their 
lives.]: 

The blessed state to which Judah has attained is far 
ahead of that in which Israel, the Teutons, are living. To 
go back to Jerusalem, to Palestine, to be in favor with the 
new crowned King, to live with Jesus of Nazareth their 

*Isa. 66; 19-20. tZech. 12: 7. JActs 2: 20-21; also Jer. 31: 8-9. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 467 

Saviour, is something to be desired above anything else 
on earth. 

“ Thus saith the Lord God ; 1 will yet for this be in- 
quired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.”* 

“ For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon 
mount Ephraim shall cry. Arise ye, and let us go up to 
Zion unto the Lord our God.”t 

“For the Lord shall be King over all the earth : and in 
that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.”J 
Those who come with weeping and supplication shall do 
so on bended knee before the new crowned King.§ 

The last that we saw of the Watchers and the overcom- 
ers of the “lukewarm Church, ”|| of the “last days,”^ 
they were “ sitting down,”** with Christ upon His 
throne. 

This was His reward to those who had sacrificed a 
cherished object for the good of others, who had tried to 
measure out that happiness to all their fellows which they 
themselves possessed ; whose love had endeavored to 
wipe away all tears from off all faces, and soothe every 
weary heart, and whose consuming desire had been to 
sacrifice the earthly love that they might win the Divine 
Love. 

Now another wonderful chapter in their history, and in 
the history of those who were once their persecutors, takes 
place. It has come to pass as Christ said : “ Behold, I 
will make them (the persecutors) to come and worship be- 
fore thy feet (the overcomers) and to know that I have 
loved thee.”tt 

Strange that the King and His Bride should both have 
had the same persecution, having been despised and re- 
jected by men, in the past, and now honored at the same 
time and place by the ones who once despised and hated 
them. 

*Ezek. 36: 37. tier. 31: 6. tZech. 14: 9. §Jer. 31: 8-9. 

.lIRev. 3: 14-18. II2 Tim. 3: 1-5. *»Rev. 3: 21. ttRev. 3: 9. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


468 

Thus pride and loftiness is forever stamped out of the 
human heart, and true worship and heartfelt service ren- 
dered to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. 

“ Every one that is left of all the nations which came 
against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year, to 
worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast 
of tabernacles.”* 

Then “ shall every man turn to his own people and flee 
every one to his own land,”! and tell in their own lan- 
guage of all that they have seen and heard. 

But to all who will not come to the feast of tabernacles, 
“ this will be the plague with which the Lord will smite 
all the people that have fought against Jerusalem ; their 
flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet ; 
their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their 
tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And so shall 
be the plague of the hOrse, the mule, the camel*, the ass, 
and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this 
plague. And it shall be that whoso will not come up of 
all the families of the earth, unto Jerusalem to worship 
the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no 
rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come 
not up, that hav-e no rain ; there shall be the plague 
wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not 
up to the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punish- 
ment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that 
come not up to the feast of tabernacles.” J 

“ And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to 
another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh 
come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”§ 

“ And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that 
day, and shall be my people : and I will dwell in the midst 
of thee.” II 

“ Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; it shall come to pass, 

•Zech. 14: 16. tisa. 13: 14. tZech. 14: 12-19. 8Isa. 66; 23. llZech. 2:11. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 


469 

that there shall come many people, and inhabitants of 
many cities : And the inhabitants of one city shall go to 
another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the 
Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts : I will go also. Yea, 
many people and strong nations shall come to seek the 
Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the 
Lord.”* 

“ On that day, there shall be upon the bells of the 
horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD ; and the pots 
in the Lord’s house shall be like bowls before an altar. 
Yea every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness 
unto the Lord of hosts : and they that sacrifice shall come 
and take of them, and seethe therein : and in that day there 
shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord 
of Hosts.”! 

“ And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and 
every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord ; for all 
shall know me from the least to the greatest.”! 

Thus shall the first and greatest question to men, — Sal- 
vation for all men and for all people in the thousand years 
of the millennium, be settled. 

The second great question that has engrossed the atten- 
tion of the inhabitants of the earth, for all time will have 
a final settlement made by the new crowned King, which 
was decreed in heaven many ages ago, and which will 
bring satisfaction and happiness to the once toiling mil- 
lions. 

“ They shall sit every man under his own vine and un- 
der his own fig tree ; and none shall make them afraid : for 
the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”§ 

This is indeed the higher law put in force when “ He 
(Christ) shall judge among the people. ”|| His judgment 
will be that every man shall have a home of his own, sit- 

*Zech. 8: 20-22. tZech. 14: 20-21, 

JIMicah 4: 3; Joel 3: 12; Is. 2: 4 — 3: 13. 


tHeb. 8: II. 


§Micah 4: 4. 


470 BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 

•ting under his own vine and his own fig-tree, and no man 
shall dare or try to make him afraid. No money usurers 
or heartless landlords are there, to make miserable the 
lives or confiscate the homes of the poor. No times of 
dark calamity are now feared by the anxious bread-win- 
ner. “ Every man shall live under his own vine and own 
fig-tree.” Each has some land he can call his own, some- 
thing to live upon that others cannot take from him. 
Blessed time, when the endearing place, “ home, sweet 
home” is always home for the builder and his children; 
when the fruits of the vineyard and the oliveyard planted 
by the hands of a father and his children are eaten by 
'Others, while they go hungry.* 

All hail the time when the old house at home is not the 
home of a stranger ! All hail the time when no mad gold- 
worshipper, no monopolist, no trust company, no syndi- 
cate, no landlord, no land-grabber, and no usurer shall in- 
fest this earth ! All hail the time when the fruits of the 
tropics and the cereals of the north are exchanged freely ; 
when governments esteem abundance a blessing and not 
a calamity ; when a man labors for himself and not for 
another ! All hail the day when the thousands of the laws 
on the statute books of the nations are obliterated, and the 
sum of all the laws are “ Love to God and love to man !” 

Earth-dwellers now live in a sphere from which all 
those evils are banished. 

“ In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call 
■every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig- 
tree.”! 

Instead of the sign: Ai? trespassing under the ex- 

treme penalty of the law we hear the brotherly call. 

Come into my vineyard. Come sit with me under my 
fig-tree.” All glory to the work of the Great King fin- 
ished in this happy day ! 

*Is. 65: 21-23. 


tZech, 3: 10. 


BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 471 

The third and last great evil that has desolated the 
world ever since man came upon it, will no more curse 
this fair earth. Man’s feeble efforts in making war with 
the King of Heaven were so futile that he shall never at- 
tempt to fight nor make war again until the thousand 
years are ended. 

“ And he shall judge among my people, and rebuke 
strong nations afar off : and they shall beat their 
swords into plough shares and their spears into prun- 
ing hooks : nation shall not lift up a sword agaiijst nation, 
neither shall they learn war any more.”* 

To have universal righteousness, justice and peace, 
there must be only one leader with power and authority 
over all. All things that have been lost cannot be re- 
stored if there is any dissenting kings to lead a hostile 
host. 

***** 

Dear reader, when troubles and afflictions come upon 
you, take them patiently, for He says : ^ As many as I 
love I rebuke and chasten.”! 

If you are thus exercised, there is a rich promise : “ Be- 
cause thou hast kept the word of My patience^ I also will 
keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come 
upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the 
earth.”! 

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man 
hear my voice and open the door I will come in with him 
and sup with him, and he with me.”§ 

“ Behold I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan 
(your persecutors) * * • » to come and worship before 
thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee .”11 
Christ and His faithful ones are the “ Two Lovers.”' 
Christ had two loves : — First, obedience and love to His 
Father; second, love to man. 

*Micah 4: 3. tRev. 3: 19. tRev. 3: 10. SRev. 3: 20. lIRev. 3: 9. 


472 BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. 

God implanted two loves in the heart of man, love to 
God and love to man, but the Watcher’s love to God — 
the greater love — had triumphed over every power, over 
every foe. 

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ.? shall 
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 
nakedness, or peril, or sword.?” 

“ Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors 
THROUGH HIM THAT LOVED US. For I am per- 
suaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- 
cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord.”* 

“ Two Lovers and Two Loves.” 

If you, reader, had had all your earthly desires gratified 
it might have been with you as Verna said: “You 

MIGHT NOT EVEN KNOW THAT YOU HAD FORGOTTEN THE 

Divine Love.” God knows best. 

Be faithful and true as she was^ and you will also 
enter into the Marriage Supfer of the La7nb^ and into 
the land of blissful dreams from which you will never 
awake to weep. 

*Rom. 8: 35-39. 


THE END. 


“Two LoVeii^ and Two LoVe^” 


Contains 472 pages of intensely interesting reading 
in two books, bound in one volume. 


“The Migp^ doijflict of the Age?” 

Contains 432 pages of reading and ten illustrations. 


Both of these books are bound in cloth, with an at- 
tractive gold stamp on back and cover. 

These two new books can be had from all booksel- 
lers, or from the author, Thomas A. Macdonald, 680 
14th Ave., Paterson, N. J. 


Fricc of each booh, $h50. 



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